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BRACHET'S 
FRENCH GRAMMAR 



SontJon 
MACMILLAN AND CO. 




PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF 

©xfotD 



dWamttmit ^rtss $mi& 



HISTORICAL GRAMMAR 






OF THE 

FRENCH TONGUE 

BY 

AUGUSTE BRACHET 
* f 

Laureat de FInstitut de France 
TRANSLATED BY 

G. W. KITCHIN, M.A. 




OxforSr 

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 

MDCCCLXXII 
I All rights reserved] 



TC -2.101 



PREFACE. 



This Historical Grammar, which proposes to study the laws 
of formation of the French tongue, is not meant to swell 
the list of those purely grammatical works =whose object is 
to facilitate the practical acquirement of the language. 

For it is no longer sufficient simply to regard the study 
of language as an useful preparation for the study of litera- 
ture. It is now seen that speech, which belongs alike to all 
the human race, must, like all natural phenomena, follow 
fixed laws, and pass in its transformations through regular 
stages. Linguistic studies may, therefore, be an end in 
themselves ; for instead of pursuing them in a spirit of idle 
curiosity, we may investigate the manner in which the law of 
change, which governs all nature, is applied to languages. 

It is an old saying that languages are not born but trans- 
muted : philology investigates the law of this transmutation, 
using for her instruments history and comparison. Let us 
explain : — in those sciences which are based on observation, 
such as chemistry or natural history, it is impossible to 
account for any fact unless we know what fact preceded it : 
if we would explain how a tree is formed, we must go back 
from tree to young shoot, from shoot to germ or seed ; in 
other words, we must make out the history of the tree by 
careful observation of the different conditions and forms 
through which it has passed. We best discern that which is 



VI PREFACE. 

by knowing that which has been ; the right way to discover 
the causes of any phenomenon is to look at the same time 
at those phenomena which have preceded it. So too for 
philology, which is, if we may hazard the phrase, the botany 
of language; here also we may best explain words or 
grammatical facts by the study of their history. A single 
example will put this in a clearer light. 

It is well known that before certain feminine substances, 
such as messe, mire, soif, /aim, peur, &c, the adjective grand 
keeps its masculine termination, grand' messe, grand' mere, &c. 
Why so ? Grammarians, who are puzzled by nothing, tell 
us without hesitation that grand is here put for grande, and 
that the apostrophe marks the suppression of the final e. 
But the good sense of every scnolar protests against this : 
after having learnt in childhood that e mute is cut off before 
a vowel, and never before a consonant, he is told that the e 
is here cut off without the slightest reason in such phrases 
as grand' route, &c. The real explanation is in fact a very 
different one. In its beginning, French grammar was 
simply the continuation and prolongation of Latin gram- 
mar ; consequently the Old French adjectives followed in 
all points the Latin adjective; those adjectives which had 
two terminations for masculine and feminine in Latin (as 
bonus, bona) had two in Old French, whereas those wtech 
had but one (as grandis, fortis, &c), had only one in Old 
French. In the thirteenth century men said une grand femme 
grandis femina ; une dme mortel, mortalis aroma ; une 
couiume cruel, consuetudo crudelis ; une plaine vert, viridis 
planities, &c. In the fourteenth century the meaning of 
this distinction was no longer understood ; and men, deem- 
ing it a mere irregularity, altered the form of the second 



PREFACE. Vll 

to that of the first class of adjectives, and wrote grande, 
verte, forte, &c, after the pattern of bonne, &c. A trace of 
the older and more correct form survives in such expres- 
sions as grand' mere, gra?td' route, grand' f aim, grand' - 
garde, Sec, which are the debris of the older language. In 
the seventeenth century, Vaugelas and the grammarians of 
the age, in their ignorance of the historic reason of this 
usage, pompously decreed that the form of these words arose 
from an euphonic suppression of the e mute, which must be 
indicated by an apostrophe. 

Here then is a natural explanation founded on history; 
and even if historical grammar had no other results be- 
yond that of rendering ordinary grammars more logical 
and simple, it would still be worth much. But instead 
of employing this clear and fruitful method of observation, 
instead of studying the past to get a better understand- 
ing of the present, all our grammarians, from Vaugelas to 
M. Girault-Duvivier, have limited themselves to the study of 
the language in its actual form, and have tried to explain 
a priori (by pure reason and logic) facts which can be 
explained only by the history of our language and the study 
of its ancient state. And accordingly, for the last three 
centuries, they have built up systems which were both learned 
and puerile, instead of limiting themselves to the simple 
observation of facts; they persist in treating philology as 
Voltaire treated geology, when he affirmed that the shells 
found on mountain-tops had been dropped there by pilgrims 
on their return from the crusades. The severe judg- 
ment passed by an eminent professor at the College of 
France * on French grammarians is fully justified : — ' La 

1 M. Breal, Discours cPowverture du cours de grammaire com- 
pare e au College de France, 1864. 



Vlll P RE F A C E. 

grammaire traditionnelle formule ses prescriptions comme 
les decrets d'une volont^ aussi impenetrable que d^cousue ; 
la philologie compared fait glisser dans ces tdnebres un 
rayon de bon sens, et au lieu d'une docility machinale elle 
demande a l'eleve une obeisance raisonnable.' 

I have illustrated by one example the position that these 
grammatical facts must be explained by an appeal to history, 
and that ' the present state of an idiom is but the natural 
consequence of its previous state, which alone makes it 
intelligible.' The same is true of words : given, for ex- 
ample, the word dme, we will seek for its origin. Before 
we come to any conclusion, let us see whether the history 
of the word (i. e. the study of the several forms it has suc- 
cessively taken) can throw any light on the problem, and 
shew us which path to follow. The accent on the a shews 
that * some letter has been suppressed : in thirteenth-cen- 
tury texts the word is written anme ; in the eleventh century 
it is aneme ; in the tenth anime, which leads us without a 
moment's hesitation to anima. Thus is history the guiding- 
line of philology, and there is not a single broken link in 
the long chain which connects the French with the Latin 
language. 

When we first look at it, the distance between dme and 
anima, between the French of Voltaire and the peasant 
Latin, seems long enough ; and yet it has needed only a 
series of infinitely small changes spread over a very long 
period to connect them with one another. Nature, wasteful 
of time, is sparing of effort ; with slow and almost imper- 
ceptible modifications she arrives at results far away in 
appearance from her starting-point l . 

1 M. G. Paris. 



PREFACE. IX 

To history, regarded as an instrument of philology, com- 
parison must be added as a precious ally. By comparison 
theories are proved, hypotheses verified. Thus, in the 
example we have already cited, the comparison of the Italian 
and Spanish alma with the French dme gives to the hypo- 
thesis we have started an invincible certainty. 

Armed with this double method, the historical and the 
comparative, an illustrious German, Frederick Diez, wrote 
(a. d. 1836 to 1842) a comparative grammar of the five 
languages which spring from Latin 1 : he shewed according 
to what laws they were formed from the Latin. Starting 
from the philological principles laid down by him, Bartsch 
and Matzner in Germany, and in France Littr6, Guessard, 
P. Meyer, and G. Paris, have applied his principles to the 
French language in particular, and by means of many 
detailed investigations have thrown fresh light upon its 
origin 2 . 

1 The Germans call these five (Italian, Spanish, French, 
Portuguese, Wallachian) the Romance languages ; the name is 
clear and convenient, has been fully accepted in scientific lan- 
guage, and will be employed throughout this book. 

2 The work of these French philologers is far from being 
equally good: to say nothing of the very unequal compilation 
published by M. Ampere, or of M. Chevallet's book,' an ad- 
mirable work in its day, but now out of date, we must regard 
with real sorrow the success which welcomed twenty years ago 
M. Genin's work {Variations de la langue frangaise), a collection^ 
of paradoxes and startling effects, performed by a juggler with 
words, whose business it is to astonish a dazzled audience. M. 
Genin was clever enough to know that his French readers would 
always prefer a well-turned epigram to a dry truth, and though 
he had never in his life read a single line of German, he was ever 
ready with a pleasantry — rather stale perhaps, but still always 
applauded in France — on ' the nebulous lucubrations of German 
brains.' He forgot that a bon mot does not do for an argument, 
and that in scientific matters it is no question of French or 
German ideas, but of right and wrong ones. 



X PREFACE.. 

In spite of these incessant efforts, the principles of French 
philology, scarcely recognised even by the learned, are still 
utterly unknown to the great majority of the literary public. 
My aim in this little book is to spread the knowledge of 
these results by freeing them from their scientific dress, 
and by making them accessible to a wider circle of readers. 
I have accordingly endeavoured to gather into a small 
volume the chief laws which have guided the formation of 
the French tongue. This is the only novelty I have to 
offer: for such works are not uncommon, at any rate out- 
side of France. In Germany and England the study of the 
mother-tongue has won its citizenship in colleges and schools, 
where it has its undisputed seat by the side of Greek and 
Latin 1 ; it has not as yet penetrated into French colleges, 
even as a branch of higher education. 

M. Fourtoul, who, among a number of mistakes, hit on 
several happy discoveries, ordered in 1853 that comparative 
grammar should be taught in the upper classes of the 
Lyceum — a step towards the study of the French language 
which was reversed by his successor. This is much to be 
regretted, especially since the present ministry, which has 
ceased to insist on the study of Greek and Latin, and has 
established industrial or technical education side by side with 
literary training, ought all the more to have strengthened 



1 It will be enough to cite two elementary works, whose 
numerous editions prove their success : in England, Gleig's History 
of the English Language, in his Scho'ol Series ; in Germany, 
Vilmar's German Historical Grammar, intended for the higher 
forms in the Gymnasia {Anfangsgrunde der deutschen Grammatik, 
zundchst fur die obersten Klassen der Gymnasien, von Dr. Vilmar. 
6te Auflage, 1864). 

2 Written in 1867. 



PREFACE. XI 

the latter by introducing the study of the three languages, 
Greek, Latin, and French, together with that of the three 
national literatures. 

One Frenchman, M. Monjean, Director of the Chaptal 
College, has ventured to introduce a course of lectures on 
the history of the French language in his rhetoric class, with 
the very best results. May his example embolden the Uni- 
versity of Paris to spread among the higher classes of our 
schools the results which have been indisputably obtained 
by science ! My object will have been gained if my modest 
manual of philology can in any way hasten this result. 

I cannot hope to set forth a complete historical gram- 
mar in two hundred pages, when three volumes would 
scarcely suffice. I have therefore, as far as possible, laid 
aside all secondary matters and points of detail, and have 
thought it enough to set forth essential laws and fundamental 
principles, so as not to overstep the limits of space which 
I had imposed on myself. 

Again, the subject of this book is not the grammar of 
Old French. The French language in its mediaeval state 
finds a place in it only so far as it illustrates Modern French 
(if I may apply to my little book what M. Littre said of his 
Historical Dictionary). Present usage depends on ancient 
usage, and can only be explained by it. Modern French 
without Old French is a tree without roots ; Old French 
by itself is a tree without branches or leaves : the separation 
of the two is an injustice to both — an injustice constantly 
done to them up to the present time; and their proper 
combination is the only originality claimed for this book, 
and gives it a right to be called a Historical Grammar. 

The book is in three distinct parts : first, the Introduction, 



Xll PREFACE. 

which sketches the history of the French language, of its 
formation, and Of its elements ; secondly, the Historical 
Grammar, which deals with the Letters (Book I), Inflexion 
(Book II), and the Formation of Words (Book III) ; and 
lastly, an Appendix containing the rules to be followed in 
the discovery of etymologies. 

Finally, I must express my gratitude to MM. Egger, Littre, 
and Ernest Renan, Members of the Institute, who have 
kindly given me the advantage of their advice and encou- 
ragement; to M. Emile Lemoine, formerly pupil of the 
Ecole Polytechnique ; last of all and most of all, to MM. Paul 
Meyer and G. Paris, whose friendship has strengthened me 
for my task. If this book has any value, it is to them that 
it is due. 

AUGUSTE BRACHET. 
May 6, 1867. 

[The English translation has had throughout the great 
benefit of the counsel and oversight of Professor Max 
Mtiller, to whom hearty thanks are due for the interest he 
has taken in its welfare. 

There are a few Latin words in the work marked with 
an asterisk, as testonem * ; these are late and unclassical.] 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface v 

INTRODUCTION. 

I. History of the French Language 
II. The Formation of the French Language 

CHAPTER I. The Continuance of the Latin Accent 
CHAPTER II. Suppression of the Short Vowel . 



CHAPTER III. Loss of the Medial Consonant 
CHAPTER IV. Conclusion .... 



32 
33 

35 
37 
38 



BOOK I. 

Phonetics, or the study of the Letters of the Alphabet. 

PART I. Permutation of Letters. 

CHAPTER I. History of the French Alphabet ... 46 

Sect. I. Origin of the French Vowels ... 46 

§ 1. Simple Vowels 46 

§ 2. Compound Vowels 51 

Sect. II. Origin of the French Consonants ... 55 

§ 1. Liquids 55 

§ 2. Labials 58 

§ 3. Dentals 60 

§ 4. Gutturals 63 

CHAPTER II. History of the Latin Alphabet .... 66 
Sect. I. History of the Latin Vowels . . . .67 

§ 1. Tonic Vowels 67 

§ 2. Atonic Vowels 68 

(1) Preceding the Tonic Syllable . . 68 

(2) Following the Tonic Syllable . . 69 
Sect. II. History of the Latin Consonants ... 70 

§ 1. Liquids 71 

I 2. Dentals 73 

§ 3. Gutturals 74 

§ 4. Labials 75 



XIV 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

PART II. Transposition, Addition, and Subtraction of Letters. 

CHAPTER I. Transposition 77 

Sect. I. Of Consonants 77 

Sect. II. Of Vowels 77 

CHAPTER II. Addition 78 

Sect. I. Prosthesis 7$ 

§ i. Of Vowels 78 

§ 2. Of Consonants 79 

Sect. II. Epen thesis 79 

Sect. III. Epithesis 80 

CHAPTER III. Subtraction 80 

Sect. I. Aphaeresis . . . . . . .80 

§ 1. Of Vowels 80 

§ 2. Of Consonants 80 

Sect. II. Syncope 80 

§ 1. Of Vowels 80 

§ 2. Of Consonants . . . . . .81 

Sect. III. Apocope 82 

§ 1. Of Vowels. . . . . . .82 

§ 2. Of Consonants 82 

PART III. Prosody. 

I. Tonic Accent 83 

II. Grammatical Accent 84 

III. Oratorical Accent 85 

IV. Provincial Accent . . 85 



BOOK II. 
Inflexion, or the study of Grammatical Forms. 



PART I. Declension. 



CHAPTER I. The Substantive 
Sect. I. Case . 
Sect. II. Genders 
Sect. III. Numbers 

CHAPTER II. The Article . 



96 



CONTENTS. 



XV 



PAGE 

CHAPTER III. The Adjective 102 

Sect. I. Qualifying Adjectives 102 

§ 1. Case and Number 102 

§ 2. Genders 102 

§ 3. Adjectives used as Substantives . . .103 

§ 4. Degrees of Comparison .... 104 

Sect. II. Nouns of Number 105 

§ 1. Cardinals 105 

§ 2. Ordinals 107 

CHAPTER IV. Pronouns 109 

Sect. I. Personal 109 

Sect. II. Possessive Hi 

Sect. III. Demonstrative 113 

Sect. IV. Relative 114 

Sect. V. Indefinite 115 

PART II. Conjugation. 

Preliminary remarks 118 

CHAPTER I. Auxiliary Verbs 123 

Sect. I. Etre . . 124 

Sect. II. Avoir 127 

CHAPTER II. Classification of Verbs. Conjugations . .129 

CHAPTER III. Formation of Tenses 136 

CHAPTER IV. Irregular Verbs 142 

CHAPTER V. Defective and Anomalous Verbs . . .143 

Sect. I. Defective 143 

Sect. II. Anomalous 148 

PART III. Particles. 



CHAPTER I. Adverbs 




• 153 


Sect. I. Of Place .... 




• 154 


Sect. II. Of Time .... 




• 155 


Sect. III. Of Manner .... 




. 158 


Sect. IV. Of Intensity .... 




• 158 


Sect. V. Of Affirmation and Negation 




. 160 


CHAPTER II. Prepositions .... 




. 163 


Sect. I. Formed from the Latin 




. 163 


Sect. II. Formed from more than one Latin Prepc 


sition 163 


Sect. III. Formed from Prepositions with A 


dverb 


s, &c. 164 



XVI CONTENTS. 






PAGE 


Sect. IV. Such as are really Participles 


l6 5 


Sect. V. Formed from Substantives 


165 


Sect. VI. Formed from Adjectives and Adverbs 


166 


Sect. VII. Formed from an Article and a Preposition 


167 


Sect. VIII. Formed from an Article and a Substantive 


167 


CHAPTER III. Conjunctions 


167 


Sect. I. Simple 


I6 7 


Sect. II. Compound 


168 


Sect. III. Conjunctival phrases .... 


169 


CHAPTER IV. Interjections 


I69 



BOOK III. 



Formation of "Words. 



CHAPTER I. Compound Words .... 
Sect. I. Of the Accent on Compound Words 
Words compounded of Nouns . 
„ „ Adjectives 

„ „ Verbs 

„ made from Phrases . 
„ compounded with Particles 
Prepositional 
Qualitative . 
Quantitative 
Negative . 
On Suffixes or Terminations 
Accentuation of Derived Words 
Nominal Suffixes . 
Accented in Latin 
Atonic in Latin 
Verbal Suffixes 
Accented . 
Atonic 
Diminutives . 



Rules which must be followed in detecting Derivations 





Sect. 


II. 




Sect. 


III. 




Sect. 


IV. 




Sect. 


V. 




Sect. 


VI. 

§ I. 

§2. 

§3- 
§4- 


CHAPTER I 




Sect. 


I. 




Sect. 


II. 

§ I- 

§ 2. 




Sect. 


ni. 

§ 1. 
§ 2. 




Sect. 


IV. 


Appendix. Rules wh 


Index . 







195 

205 



INTRODUCTION. 
I. 

HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 

Caesar tells us that he found in Gaul three races, differ- 
ing in speech, manners, and laws : the Belgae in the north, 
the Aquitani between the Garonne and the Pyrenees, and in 
the centre the Gallic or Celtic race. But the Belgae and 
the Celts really belonged to the same race, while the 
Aquitani were partly Iberian, and their language has per- 
haps survived in the Basque or Euskarian tongue. 

Thus, then, almost all the soil of France was occupied 
by the Celtic race ; they were men tall and fair, eager for 
excitement and noise, whose ambition was to fight well 
and to speak well. 

Some six hundred years before the Christian era Mar- 
seilles (Massilia) was founded near the mouths of the Rhone 
by Phocaean refugees. This city, thanks to her relations 
with Rome, was destined to be the beginning of woes to 
the people of Gaul. She called in the Romans to defend her 
against the Ligurians in B.C. 153. The Romans seized the 
Rhone valley ; and thence, in Caesar's time, passed on to 
conquer the rest of the land. The Celts resisted bravely : 
Caesar broke their spirit only by the most cruel measures; 
he massacred ten thousand women and children at Bourges ; 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

slew the heads of a tribe at Vannes, and sold the rest by- 
auction ; cut off his prisoners' hands at Uxellodunum. 
After eight years of this work Gaul was subdued, and Rome 
began to administer her conquest. 

The chief secret of Roman foreign politics lay in the 
perfection of her iron system of colonisation. She had 
two engines by which to hold down a conquered province, 
— first, her military colonies set all round the frontier, so 
as to isolate the conquest from all external influences ; arra, 
secondly, an energetic ' administration ' within that circle 
which soon broke up all local resistance. The language 
and religion of the conqueror was forced on the subject : 
all resistance was crushed by extermination or deportation ; 
the vacuum filled up with colonists and freedmen from 
Rome. 

By this method conquerors and conquered were in a few 
years completely welded into one mass. Less than a cen- 
tury after the conquest, Latin was spoken in many parts of 
Gaul. But this Latin, brought in by colonists and soldiers, 
was very unlike the Latin of Virgil : it was distinguished 
from the classical or written Latin by peculiarities of vo- 
cabulary and of inflexion which demand our attention. 

It is a first law of history that all languages (just like the 
nations that use them), are one at first, but presently split 
into two parts — the speech of the noble and that of the 
people. Every language has its epoch of division : it comes 
when the nation opens its eyes to arts and poetry, in 
a word, to culture and literature. From that time the nation 
may be divided into two great classes, the lettered and 
the unlettered. 

The Latin language underwent this same division at the 
time of the second Punic war. The separation increased 
as time went on. Greek art and Greek manners introduced 
into the literary language of Rome a crowd of purely Greek 



HISTORY OF VHE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 3 

words utterly unknown, to the popular idiom l . These 
words, marks of breeding, but servile copies of the Greek, 
remained as strange tc the common people, as the aristo- 
cratic French-English ieims^ tecf,' 'sport/ 'steeple-chase/ 

., or the technical turns africience, 'diluvium,' ' stratifi- 
tttaty ! ornithology /j&j.^ pre fca-lftie French peasantry at the 
* prebe«b: r dAy. .'Tik^-Hinihisredotaords widened the breach 
betweoif the itbcfrkiio fad ife«r fibular Latin, a difference 
wbich^e^n indi^a3mfeiQ^1^^w»,^nte'4ia^ilis/ the literary, 
aristocratic, *<ckssiea*' d^ittpfc^;BtK r, §S02D«lfe^lifl^gntire^ 
distinct from" the/ 1$|^J<fejlilbiii.-. n f<Ki5S(jii«sfi-<fljriWss^ 
verbum,' as authors di<^tfk^fbtf^iaJ$tffce : 4»ttiv*rflfrgill 
people and the camp. tdfcdGfllikl nPugniftsski 

Each had its own grammatical for!fc*)£i^eltaHj|ila^ 
For example, ' to strike' is verberare in literary Latin ; Mtfte 
popular Latin said batuere : the French words, chevat, 
semaine, aider, doubter, bataille, &c, were, in the classical 
Latin, equus, hebdomas, juvare, duplicare, pugna; in the 
popular, caballus, septimana, adjutare, duplare, batualia. 

The popular Latin was unwritten, and we might have 
remained ignorant of its existence had not the Roman 
grammarians revealed it to us by exhorting their students 
to avoid as low and trivial certain expressions which, they 
tell us, were in common vulgar use. Cassiodorus tells us 
that the feigned combats of gladiators and exercise-drill of 
the army were called batalia, ' Quae vulgo batalia dicuntur, 
exercitationes gladiatorum vel militum significant.' Pugna 
was the literary term, batalia the popular ; pugna has dis- 
appeared, batalia has survived in bataille. The pedants of 
that day could not foresee that the literary idiom, which 
they admired so much, would one day disappear; and that 

1 As dfMpLQearpov, i7T77oSpo/io?, €(pL7r7riov, (pikoaocpla, yeaypacpia, 
&C 

B 2 



I XT 'iblK 



the popular Latin would reign in its room, parent of Italian, 
French, and Spanish, and strong enough to bear the weight •' 
of the literatures of three powerfulhations. 

Imported into Gaul by gekJiejanaisct Colonists, the popular 
idiom soon made itself at: home, i aid, even in the first cen- 
tury of the Christian era, ihad supplanted the Celtic speech, 
except in Armorica and av/fefe isoiajeti spots *. A hundred 
years after the conquest, wonseti fod children used to: sing 
Latin songs; and son luarverkiFi becime the use of rthe 
languagQy,crt*ati^^ttaba'ft t»- i.e ' Celt was no longer 
i^^ )S) alpA[';3arbaiJu! . f\ V, ,en«thy sojourn of the 
l&£i$ri^ii& ^besfcaAt -Am- i of < Ohists, the necessity of , 
pleading In' Latin before the Roman tribunals, the con- 
t^stbd&i^ftfenpebple to Christianity, and lastly, the natural 
W&Sity' and love of change 3 which distinguishes the Celt, 
were further causes which contributed to the adoption by 
the Gallic people of the language of their conquerors. 

But, at the same time that the people thus accepted the 
common Latin, the upper classes in Gaul were ambitious 
to adopt the literary dialect, practised rhetoric, and hoped to 
rise to political distinctions. From the days of Augustus, 
Gaul became a nursery for rhetoricians and grammarians; 
the schools of Autun, Bordeaux, and Lyons were renowned 
throughout the Empire. Pliny boasts that his works were 
known throughout Gaul 4 . Caesar admitted Celts to the 
Senate; Claudius enabled them to undertake all public 
offices, on the sole condition that they knew Latin. It is 
easy to understand why the Celtic noble forgot his mother- 
tongue. 

1 The Celtic lingered long after this date in Auvergne. 

2 That is, the test of language (implied in the word Barbarian) 
placed the Gaul on the same footing with the average Roman 
colonist. 

3 See Caes. B. G. 4. 5. 

4 Pliny, Ep. 9. 2. 



HISTORF OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 5 

That tongue disappeared, leaving a few faint traces as 

evidences that it had existed. Thus the Romans remarked 

that the bird they called galerita was called alauda in 

Gaul ; that ' beer/ in Graeco-Latin zythum, was eervisia in 

Gallic : they introduced the words into their own tongue, 

and these new Latin words, passing six centuries later into 

French, produced the words alouetie x and cervoise. These 

and a few other isolated words, together with certain names 
t 
of places, are all that the French language owes to the 

Gallic; and indeed, if we speak more exactly, the French 

has borrowed nothing from it, since these words have 

passed through an intermediate Latin stage, and are not 

directly introduced into French from Gallic. But these 

cases are so very rare, that it may almost be affirmed that the 

influence of Celtic upon French has been inappreciable. 

Thus, while the French nation is really Celtic in race, its 
language is not so : a very remarkable fact, which shews, 
better than any history could do, what a strong absorbent 
was the Roman power. 

The Celtic language had scarcely accepted its defeat 2 , 
when the Latin, from this time forth the true mistress of 



1 Alauda did not pass directly into alouette, but into the 
O. Fr. aloue, of which alouette is the diminutive. 

2 The Celtic language, thrust by the Romans back into 
Armorica, survived there for centuries, and was revived by an 
immigration of Kymri from Wales in the seventh century. The 
Bretons resisted the Frank as successfully as they had withstood 
the Roman ; and what is now called the Low Breton patois 
"isTrTe direct descendent of the Celtic language. It has a con- 
siderable literature of tales, songs, and plays, which, however, only 
date back as far as the fourteenth century. But the language, 
living thus for a thousand years ' in extremis,' naturally has 
deviated far from the primitive Celtic tongue : for beside the 
natural corruption and degradation of eighteen centuries, it has 
been forced to admit into its ranks a crowd of foreign, that is, 
of French, terms ; and consequently many Breton words pre- 
sent the singular spectacle of having two distinct forms, the one 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

Gaul, had to enter on a fresh struggle, and to repel a new 
assailant. The invasion of the German tribes set in. As 
far back as the second century after Christ the barbarians 
began slowly to filter through into the Gaelic soil : they 
silently undermined the dykes of the Roman Empire, and 
prepared for the bursting of the barriers, and -tlje terrible 
inundations of the fifth century. 

To protect northern Gaul against these German inva- 
sions the Romans garrisoned their frontiers with a chain of 
legions or military colonies ; and when these veterans were 
no longer able to defend the sanctity of the Roman territory, 
the Romans employed an expedient which kept the great 
invasion at bay for a whole century, and for' a few years 
at least gave peace to the Empire. They determined to 
let the barbarians settle in Northern Gaul, to attach them 
to the Empire, and to use them as a new and durable 
barrier against all further invasions. These were the Leti *, 
colonies of barbarians who recognised the nominal so- 
vereignty of the Emperors, and enjoyed lands granted them 

ancient and of Celtic origin, the other more modern, borrowed 
from the French, but modified by a Celtic termination. Thus 
in Breton we have for 

just egwirion or just, 

secretly ekuz or secretamerzt, 

troubled enkrezet or troublet, 
anger buanegez or^/pkr, and so on. 

Here the middle column is composed 1 of old Celtic words ; 
the third of corrupted French words. It would not have been 
necessary to insist on so elementary a truth, had not a theory 
been started in the eighteenth century that these Celtic impor- 
tations were really the origin of the French language. Le Bri- 
gant and the well-known La Tour d'Auvergne supported this 
opinion. Voltaire called this etymological folly Celto-mania : 
its believers amused the world by extravagant assertions — that 
Celtic was the original speech of Paradise ; that Adam, Eve, the 
serpent, all spoke Low Breton. These errors have had a still 
worse result ; for they have cast unmerited discredit on all Celtic 
studies. 

1 Probably a form of the German word kute. See Du Cange. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 7 

under a kind of military tenure. At the same time the 
Emperors hired Franks, Burgundians, Alans, to fill up the 
blanks in their legions. 

The consequence was an ever-increasing introduction of 
German words into the common Latin; these terms, as 
was natural; being chiefly connected with warfare. Vegetius, 
in his ' De re militari,' tells us that the Roman soldiers gave 
the name Of burgus to a -fortified work 1 . This is the 
German Burg. Thus, nearly a century before Clovis, Ger- 
man terms had gotj into the Latin language : it is clear that 
after the German invasion this influence will greatly increase 
in strength. , 

But we must first note down the chief features of the 
Latin of the last ages of the Empire. A century after the 
Roman conquest Gaul was flourishing and prosperous. The 
Latin language in its two forms pursued a tranquil course — 
the common dialect in cities and in the fields, the literary 
dialect among the aristocracy and middle classes. In 
the second century after Christ, the time of the highest 
splendour of Roman Gaul, the popular dialect was in the 
shade, while literary Latin shone with great brilliancy ; the 
Gallic schools produced lawyers and rhetoricians : and 
Juvenal calls Gaul ' nutricula causidicorum.' 

But in the fifth century, just before the German invasion, 
the scene is very (Jifr&ent : the two dialects have changed 
places; literary Latin is dying; the popular dialect spreads 
widely, and this even before the invasion of a.d. 407. The 
institution of the 'Curials' in the cities, and the extinction 
of the older municipal bodies, gave its deathblow to literature 
and the literary dialect. The better classes perished, schools 
were everywhere shut up, literary culture came to an imme- 
diate stop, and ignorance speedily recovered all the ground 

1 ' Castellum parvum, quod bur gum vocant.' , 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

she had lost. From this time the use of the written Latin, 
a dialect which only lived in books and by tradition, was^ 
confined to the Gallo-Roman nobles, a handful of men who 
transmitted to their children a petrified idiom, whichjirhad 
no life, and was destined to perish with them, when th<&i 
time came. And here again popular Latin won by the 
losses of the literary dialect. 

At last the Roman Empire fell under the attacks of the 
barbarians. In the whirlwind, administration, justice, aris- 
tocracy, literature, all perished, and with them the language x 



1 M. Meyer says well that 'the invasion of the barbarians 
irrevocably fixed the gulf between these two idioms, between 
the common Latin, the mistress of Gaul, ready to be the mother 
of the French language, and the literary dialect, a dead language, 
used only by the learned, and destined to have no influence in 
the formation of modern languages. This dialect was kept 
up by Gregory of Tours, Fredegarius, the literary renaissance 
under Charlemagne, and by scholasticism; it was perpetuated 
in learned use, and in the sixteenth century experienced, after 
the great renaissance, a kind of artificial resurrection. Even in 
our own day it is the official language of the Roman Catholic 
Church, and, until quite lately, was the language of the learned, 
especially in Germany.' 

After the invasion under the Merovingian kings, the public 
personages, notaries or clergy, too ignorant to write literary 
Latin correctly, too proud to use the common Latin in their 
documents, and eager to imitate the fine style of Roman officials, 
wrote ' a sort of jargon, which is neither literary Latin nor popular 
Latin, but a strange mixture of both, with the common dialect 
more or less preponderant, according to the ignorance of the 
writer.' This jargon is what is called Low Latin. It continued 
to be the language of the French administration up to 1539, 
when Francis I ordered French to be used in all public acts. 
This distinction between Low Latin, a. gross and barren imitation 
of the Roman literary dialect, and Popular Latin, the living 
language of the people, and parent of the French tongue, must 
not be forgotten. It should be added tint -there is, besides, a 
second kind of Low Latin, that of the middle ages, which 
reproduced French words in a servile way : as for example, 
missaticum produced the French message; and again message 
was retranslated into messagium. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 9 

which they had employed. Then the common dialect 
Entirely supplanted the other. If proof of this were needed, 

L we should find it in the fact that wherever the literary and 
the ^pmmon dialect used two different words for the same 

I £u#ng, the French language has invariably taken the latter, 
and thrown aside the former: an absolute proof that the 
literary dialect was confined to the upper classes, and 
flourished and perished with them. Illustrations are innu- 
merable : thus — 



TERARY LATIN. 


POPULAR LATIN. 


FRENCH. 


Hebdomas 


septimaxia 


semaine 
(O.Fr. sepmaine) 


Equus 


caballus 


cheval 


Verberare 


batuere 


batlre 


Pugna 


battalia 


bataille 


Osculari 


basiare 


baiser 


Iter 


viaticum 


voyage 


Verti 


tornare 


tourner 


TJrbs 


villa 


ville 


Os 


bucca 


bouche 


Felis 


catus 


chat 


Duplicare 


duplare 


doubler 


Sinere 


laxare 


laisser 


Tentamen 


exagium 


essai 


Gulosus 


glutc-xiem 


glouton 


Jus 


directus (drictus) 


droit 


Minae 


minaciae 


menace 


Edere 


manducare 


manger 


Ignis 


focus 


feu 


Ludus 


jocus 


jeu 


Aula 


curtem 


cour, &c. 



These examples shew how incorrect it is to say that 



IO INTRODUCTION. 

French is classical Latin corrupted by an intermixture oX 
popular forms; it is, on the contrary, the popular Latin 
alone. The same is true wherever the invasion of the 
barbarians also destroyed the literary dialect. Italian, 
Spanish, Portuguese, are the products of the slow de- 
velopment of the common Roman speech. Hence the 
striking family likeness often noticed between these sister- 
tongues — 

' Facies non omnibus una, 
Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.' 

The German destroyed the literary dialect ; but the 
common Latin was the gainer: eventually it succeeded in 
absorbing even its conquerors ; it compelled them to forget 
their own language, and to adopt that of their subjects. 

There are many causes which led to this result : first, 
the numerical paucity of the Franks, a few bands of men, 
scarcely more than twelve thousand in all, in the midst 
of six millions, of Gallo-Romans ; next, if the Franks had 
not accepted the Latin, what would they have taken for 
their common tongue? Each German tribe had its own 
dialect, Frankish, Burgundian, Gothic, &c. But, lastly, the 
conversion of the Franks to Christianity, which, as it 
were, bound them over to learn Latin, may be reckoned 
as the special cause which made the adoption of the Latin 
a necessity. 

So they all tried to learn Latin ; and, less than a century, 
after the invasion, Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, congratu- 
lated Haribert on the great success of his efforts : 

' Qualis es in propria docto sermone loquela 
Qui nos Romano vincis in eloquio ? ' 

At Strasburg in a.d. 842, Ludwig the German takes an 
oath in French in the presence of the army of Karl the 
Bald; a clear proof that the Karling soldiers no longer 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. II 

derstood German. In the next century, when Hrolf 
vore fealty to Karl the Simple (a.d. 911), he had scarcely 
begun the formula with ' Bi Got ' (In the name of God) 
when all the company of lords burst out laughing ; so 
utterly was German forgoUen, that it actually sounded 
ridiculous in their ears. 

Thus the Latin supplanted the German : yet a great 
number of German words .were retained to designate those 
new institutions which the Franks brought in with them, 
such as vassal, alleu, fief, &e. All terms relating to political 
or judicial functions, all titles in the feudal hierarchy, are 
of German origin. The German words mahal, bann, alod, 
skepeno, marahscalh, siniscalh, &c, are formed by the Low 
Latin into mallum, bannum, alodium, scabinus, mari- 
scallus, siniscallus, &c, whence, several centuries later, they 
passed into the French mall, ban, alleu, e'chevin, mare'chal, 
se'ne'chal, &c. Still more is this the case with war terms. 
The Franks long kept to themselves, as a privileged class, 
the warlike profession;' and the Gallo-Romans accepted 
the terms which their masters employed: as halsberc, hau- 
bert ; helm, heaume ; heriberg, auberge ; werra, guerre, &c. 
There are upwards of nine hundred such words which 
passed from the German into Latin, and thence into French. 
This invasion touched the vocabulary only : there are no 
traces of German influence on French syntax. 

Common Latin was greatly affected by this sudden inroad 
of barbarous words : its vocabulary became less and less 
like that of the literary dialect; its syntax still further 
widened the breach. Those analytical tendencies which 
appear in all modern languages, and which cause the use 
of prepositions instead of inflected cases to mark possession 
and aim, soon shewed themselves in popular Latin. The 
literary dialect said, 'Do panem Petro,' or 'equus Petri;' 
but the popular Latin said, 'Do panem ad Petrum,' 'caballus 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

de Pe/ro:' and similarly auxiliaries were introduced in the 
conjugation of verbs 1 . Thus modified in its syntax, and 
augmented in its vocabulary, popular Latin became a really 
distinct language; and the men of culture in Merovingian 
times called it, slightingly, ' lingua romana rustica/ Peasant- 
Latin. 

Its position as an independent language is attested early. 
Church writers give us the earliest proofs of it, as we should 
expect; for the Church, through her missionaries and her 
priests, first addressed the people, and in order to be un- 
derstood, she must use their language. Thus, as early as 
a.d. 660, St. Mummolinus is elected Bishop of Noyon, be- 
cause he can speak both German and Romance 2 . We read 
in the life of St. Adalhard, Abbot of Corby in a.d 750, that 
he preached in the popular tongue 'with a sweet fluency;' 
and his biographer gives us clearly the distinction between 
the two dialects when he says, ' When St. Adalhard spoke 
the common, that is, the Roman tongue, you would have 
thought he knew no other; if he spoke German, he was 
still more brilliant ; but if he used the Latin, he spoke even 
better than in either of the others 3 .' 

Thus in the lifetime of Karl the Great (as we see from 
this passage), the people understood no Latin, and the 
Church had taken to preaching and teaching in French. 
There has come to light by a fortunate chance a fragment 
of a glossary, called the 'Glosses of Reichenau 4 ,' and written 



1 See below, p. 123. 

2 ' Quia praevalebat non tantum in Teutonica, sed etiam in 
Romana lingua? 

3 ' Qui si vulgari, id est, Romana lingua, loqueretur, omnium 
aliarum putaretur inscius ; si vero leutonica, enitebat perfectius ; 
si Latina, in nulla omnino absolutius.' — Acta Sanctorum, i. 416. 

4 Discovered in 1863 by M. Holtzmann in a MS. in the 
Library at Reichenau. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 



] 3 



about a.d. 768, which explains many of the difficult words 
of the Vulgate in the French of the period. The words are 
written in two columns; on the left the Latin (Vulgate), 
on the right the French : thus — • 



LATIN. 


(of 


FRENCH 

the 8th cent.) 


MODERN FRENCH 


Minas 




Manatees 


Menaces 


Galea 




Helmo 


Heaume 


Tugurium 




Cabanna 


Cabane 


Singulariter 




Solamente 


Settlement 


Caementarii 




Macioni 


Macons 


Sindones 




Linciolo 


Linceul 


Sagma 




Soma 


Somme 



&c. 



&c. 



This most interesting fragment is the first written monu- 
ment of the French language, eleven hundred years old. 
The translation into modern French, in the right hand 
column, shews at a glance the distance between this still 
unformed dialect and the French of the present day. 

These Glosses also shew that the inhabitants of France 
spoke French in Karl's days ; in fact, Karl himself found 
it necessary to learn the language of his subjects. 

And while Eginhard, Alcuin, Angilbert, and all the culti- 
vated class of that day affected to despise this half-fo»med 
patois, the Church, which had never been afraid of using 
this vulgar speech, quickly took in its whole importance, 
and instead of resisting it, and clinging to literary Latin, set 
herself to make a skilful use of the new movement. Hitherto 
she had but tolerated, or perhaps patronised, the study of 
this vulgar tongue by priests and missionaries ; but towards 
the end of Karl's reign, she did more : she ordered the 
clergy to study it, seeing that the people no longer un- 
derstood Latin. In a.d. 813 the Council of Tours bid all 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

priests expound the Holy Scriptures in the ' Romance/' and 
the preachers to use the same in their pulpits. 

Thus the Church recognised the existence of this new 
language, anci confessed that Latin was dead and gone 
from among the people ; and, when once she had settled 
this point, she carried it out to its natural results with her 
habitual perseverance. After the Council of Tours, those of 
Rheims in a.d. 813, of Strasburg in a.d. 842, and of Aries 
in a.d. 851, renewed the order to preachers, until in fact the 
vulgar tongue was everywhere substituted for the Latin. 
Thus it gained ground rapidly; so much so that five-and- 
twenty years after Karl's death, it was used as the language 
of political negociation in the famous Oaths of Strasburg 
which Ludwig the German took to his brother, Karl the 
Bald, and Karl's army took to Ludwig the German, in 
March, a.d. 842. Nithard, the nephew of Karl the Great, 
has preserved them in his ' History of the Franks,' written 
about a.d. 843, at the command of Karl the Bald, whose 
intimate friend he was. 

I. Oath taken by Ludwig the German. 
Old French. Modern French. 



Pro Deo amur, et pro 
christian poblo et nostro 
commun salvament, d'ist di 
en avant, in quant Deus savir 
et podir me dunat, si salvarai 
eo cist meon fradre Karlo et 



Pour F amour de Dieu et 
pour le salut du peuple Chre- 
tien et notre commun salut, 
de ce jour en avant, autant 
que Dieu me donne savoir et 
pouvoir, je sauverai mon frere 



in adjudha et in cadhuna j Charles et en aide et en 



cosa, si cum om per dreit 
son fradra salvar dist, in o 
quid il mi altresi fazet ; et ab 



chaque chose (ainsi qu'on 
doit, selon la justice, sauver 
son frere), a condition qu'il 



Ludher nul plaid numquam en fasse autant pour moi, et je 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 



prindrai, qui meon vol cist 
meon fradre Karle in damno 
sit. 



ne ferai avec Lothaire aucun 
accord qui, par ma volont£, 
porte prejudice a mon frere 
Charles ici present. 



II. Oath of the Soldiers of Karl the Bald. 



Old French. 
Si Lodhuwigs sagrament, 
que son fradre Karlo jurat, 
conservat, et Karlus meos 
sendra de sua part non los 
tanit, si io returnar non Tint 
pois, ne io, ne neuls cui eo 
returnar int pois, in nulla ad- 
judha contra Lodhuwig nun 
li iv er. 



Modern French. 
Si Louis garde le serment 
qu'il a jure' a son frere Charles, 
et que Charles mon maitre, 
de son cot6, ne le tienne pas, 
si je ne Ten puis de'tourner, 
ni moi, ni nul que j'en puis 
de'tourner, ne lui serai en aide 
contre Louis. 



Next after the Reichenau Glosses, these oaths are the 
oldest monuments of the French language : and their value 
is incalculable for students of the linguistic origin of the 
Romance tongues ; for we here catch, as it were, the Latin 
language in the act of transformation into French. The 
importance of this will appear in the course of this book : 
it is sufficient to remark here that the Frankish army clearly 
had lost all knowledge of Latin or German; otherwise th# 
German Emperor, Ludwig, would never have taken oath to 
them in French. 

From this time the vulgar tongue took, once and for all, 
the place of the Latin which the people no longer under- 
stood. In common use during the last two centuries, 
officially acknowledged by the Church in a.d. 813, and by 
the State in a.d. 842, it increased in importance, and soon 
broke out in poetry. In the ninth century there appears 
a poem in French verse, on the martyrdom of St. Eulalia; 



\6 INTRODUCTION. 

in the tenth century we find two short poems, the one on 
the Passion, the other on the life of St. Leger of Autun. 
These are the first poetic attempts of the language. 

These two centuries, the ninth and tenth, in which the 
later Karlings came to a wretched end, seem at first sight 
barren and desolate ; but they are in reality fertile in the 
beginnings of French national life : with that life comes a 
national language, poetry, and art. All these things sprang 
into being from the people, not from the kings. The pre- 
tentious chroniclers of the time describe the last moments 
of the decrepit Karling dynasty; they pass over and have 
not noticed how fresh a life, and what creative energy was 
beginning to reanimate what seemed to be the worn-out 
powers of society 1 . 

From the tenth century the French nation begins its real 
life : the invasions of the barbarians are over 2 . On the 
ruins of the Karling empire feudalism, a new form of social 
life half-way between ancient slavery and modern freedom, 
will flourish for six centuries. 

As the use of the French speech increased, the knowledge 
of Latin diminished. Hugh Capet knew no language but 
French : when he had an interview with Otto II, the 
Emperor of Germany, who spoke Latin to him, he was 

1 This birth of the French language in a historical age well- 
known to us is of the highest importance : we learn from it 
how such languages as Latin and Greek (which we know only in 
their full age) came first into being. And when our histories 
relate in full the obscure quarrels and struggles of obscure 
princes, and give us no details respecting this great event, we see 
clearly that true history has not yet found its way into the 
school-room. See M. Littre, Histoire de la Langue Frangaise, 
i. 260, and the Revue des Deux Mondes, Feb. 15, 1867. 

2 The last invasion ended with the establishment of the 
Northmen in north-western France. Their numbers were 
small : they forgot their own tongue, and adopted that of their 
subjects. A century after Hrolf's death Normandy was cele- 
brated for the excellence of her French. • 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 1J 

obliged to get one of the bishops to act as interpreter. 
Even in the monasteries Latin ceased to be used after the 
eleventh century; there were even numbers of priests who 
knew nothing but French. 

Thus at last Latin was abandoned even by the upper 
classes: they had clung to it three centuries after it had 
died out of common use. 

Forthwith there sprang up, between the eleventh and the 
thirteenth centuries, a thoroughly original poetical literature ; 
graceful or brilliant lyrics, and high epics, like the ' Chanson 
de Roland/ were written, and became exceedingly popular 
in other countries as well as at home. 

It is also worthy of notice that the French language from 
the thirteenth century onwards, was well known to and 
accepted by neighbouring nations. The Norman Conquest 
imposed French on England : in Germany Frederick II and 
his court were familiar with French poetry; in Italy French 
was generally known and used ; Marco-Polo wrote his travels 
in it ; Brunetto Latini, Dante's master, composed his ' Tresor 
de Sapience ' in it, ' because the French is the most delectable 
and most common tongue.' From every quarter students 
flocked to the University of Paris, and mediaeval Latin lines 
testify to the fact. 

' Filii nobilium, dum sunt juniores, 
Mittuntur in Franciam fieri doctores.' 

It* is time that we asked, What is this French language 
which Europe valued so highly in the thirteenth century ? 

It is a well-known fact that the first cause of the phonetic 
changes a^id transformations of language lies in* the 
structure of the vocal organs ; or, in other words, in dif- 
ference of pronunciation; and this again results from dif- 
ference of race. V Thus Latin, introduced into Italy, Gaul, 
and Spain, and spoken by three different races, each in its 
own way, gradually was decomposed, as we have seen, into 

c 



1 8 INTRODUCTION. 

three corresponding languages. In Gaul, popular Latin fell 
into the hands of two rival j^aces, North and South, and 
produced two distinct idioms, that of the South, or the 
' Langue d'Oc,' and that of the North, called the ' Langue 
d'Oil V These curious names spring from the custom, not 
uncommon in the middle ages, of designating languages by 
the sign of affirmation; just as- Dante calls Italian 'la lingua 
di «".' The modern French out was oil in the North, and 
oc in the South of France. 

The \ Langue d'Oil/ which prevailed in districts inhabited 
by populations whose characteristic differences were strongly 
marked fthe Normans, Picards, Burgundians, &c, having 
their own peculiarities of pronunciation), was broken up in 
its turn into corresponding dialects. There was no one 
capital; each great feudal district was independent, with 
its own political and literary life, its own tongue, manners, 
and customs. 

Thus in Normandy or Picardy all official acts ^and literary 
works were in the Norman or Picard dialect ;* tjie dialect 
of the He de France, or French, as it then was 'called, was 
regarded in Normandy as almost a foreign language. 

There were in the middle ages four principal dialects 
of the 'Langue d'Oil' — Norman, Picard, Burgundian, and 

1 A line drawn from La Rochelle to Grenoble will fairly 
represent the frontiers of the two dialects ; north of it yfa have 
the ' Langue d'Oil,' south of it the ' Langue d'Oc' 

This ' Langue d'Oc,' or, as it is now more commonly called, 
Proven£al, from the chief district in which it obtained, was 
developed alongside of the Northern dialect ; and in the twelfth 
century was the parent of a brilliant lyrical literature. 

The rivalry of North and South, which ended in the Albigensian 
war, and the defeat of the South, destroyed this Provencal litera- 
ture. In a.d. 1272 Languedoc became French, and the French 
dialect soon prevailed. The Provencal, Languedoc, and Gascon 
patois, which still remain in the South, are but the fragmentary 
remains of this ' Langue d'Oc,' which was so brilliant a language 
for two centuries. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 1 9 

French 1 (of the He de France) in the centre of the triangle 
formed by the other three. T&ese four dialects, which were 
equal in power and influence, had such marked differences 
that even strangers^were struck by it : Roger Bacon (who was 
in France in a.d. 1240), when seeking to shew in his ' Opus 
Majlis' what the dialects of a language may be, chooses 
French as his example. ■ The idioms of the same language 
vary in different districts, as is clearly the case in France, 
which has numerous varieties of idiom, among the French, 
the Normans, the Picards, and the Burgundians ; arrd what 
is correct speech in Picardy, is looked on as a barbarism by 
the Burgundians, and even by the French V 

These differences of dialect, as in the Greek language, 
did not touch the syntax, but only the forms of words : thus, 
for example, amabam became, in the twelfth century, ameve 
in Burgundy, amoie in the He de France, and amoue in 
Normandy. This word shews us how Latin words shrank 
and became $tiffer as they went northwards : they form a kind 
of sensitive thermometer, which falls as we go farther from 
the South ; and this, not 'per saltum,' but by gradual change. 
May we not conclude that words, like plants, are modified 
by climate, which is one of the factors of language, as 
mathematicians say? 

In the middle ages, these four dialects (like the four Greek 
dialects. Ionian, Aeolian, Attic, and Dorian) produced four 
dis^nct literatures : we can immediately distinguish a Nor- 
man from a French or a Burgundian writer. Each of these 

* ' Frenchman,' in the middle ages, was exclusively the name 
of the inhabitant of the He de France. 

2 ' Nam et idiomata variantur ejusdem linguae apud diversos, 
sicut patet de lingua Gallicana quae apud Galileos, et Normannos, 
et Picardos, et Burgundos multiplici variatur idiomate. Et quod 
proprie dicitur in idiomate Picardorum horrescit apud Bur- 
gundos, imo apud Gallicos viciniores.' Roger Bacon, Opus Majus, 
iii. 44. 

c 2 



:; IXTRODUCTIOX. 

languages had a separate and complete existence : we have 
now to see how the four were reduced to one, and *hy 
the dialect of the Be de France was adopted as the common 
tongue rather than the Norman or Burgundian. 

Feudalism, in parcelling out the country, had secured the 
independence of the chief districts in politics, language, 
and literature ; and similarly, when feudalism gave place 
to a central monarchy, the dialects also fell, and were 
suppressed by a central language. The dialect of the 
dominant province was sure to become the language of the 
whole people. 

Thus the language must depend on political movements ; 
and the election of Hugh Capet, Duke of France, to be 
king, settled the question, and made Paris the capital of 
France. Still, throughout the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 
the Capetian sovereigns, lords of little but the He de France 
and the Orleans territory, had no influence outside the royal 
domain ; and the dialects retained their independent equality. 
But by the middle of the thirteenth century the sovereignty 
of the Capets grew stronger, and with its growth the French 
dialect also increased. The lords of the He de France are 
always growing stronger. In a. d. iioi they get Berry; 
Picardy falls to Philip Augustus in a. d. 1203, and Touraine 
after it: Normandy follows in a. d. 1204; Languedoc is 
added in a. d. 1272, and Champagne in a. d. 1361. 

The French dialect followed the triumphant progress of the * 
Duke of France, and drove out the dialects of the conquered 
provinces. Thus, to take Picardy as an example, French 
was first introduced into the official acts of the conquerors, 
then into literary works, and finally it was adopted by all who 
wished to be thought gentlemen. The people alone resisted 
and kept their ancient speech; and the Picard, no longer 
written, but only spoken by the commons, and subject to 
incessant alterations, fell from the rank of a dialect to that 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 21 

of a patois, that is, a spoken idiom, not recognised by the 
French literary language. 

And so, in less than three centuries, the Norman, the 
Picard, and the Burgundian dialects were supplanted by that 
of the lie de France, and became mere patois, under which 
attentive observation alone can discover any of the charac- 
teristics of those mediaeval dialects whose monuments 
survive in their respective literatures. 

But the final triumph of French over the neighbouring 
dialects was not won without a struggle, in which the victor 
received many a wound: a certain number of forms bor- 
rowed from the defeated dialects entered into the French 
language. There are words whose origin can be traced to 
the Norman or the Burgundian; words which are not in com- 
plete harmony with the proper analogy of the French, which 
are, therefore, easily recognised as strangers. Thus the 
hard c of the Latin became ch in the He de France, and c 
in Picardy : campus, cantare, carta, castellum, campania, 
catus, cappa, cancellus, earrieare, &c, became in French 
champ, chanter, charte, chaste/, champagne, chat, chappe, chancel, 
charger, &c. ; but in Picardy, camp, canter, carte, castel, cam- 
pagne, cat, cappe, cancel, carguer, &c. Now in these instances, 
though modern French has generally followed the ch form, 
it has not done so always; thus it has taken campagne in 
preference to champagne. In a few cases it has adopted both 
forms with different senses, though they are in reality the same 
word : as from campus, champ and camp; from cappa, chappe 
and cappe ; from cancellus, chancel and cancel ; from carta, 
charte and carte; from capsa, chdsse and caisse; from castel- 
lum, chateau and castel; from earrieare, charger and carguer. 
The same might be shewn to be true with Norman and Bur- 
gundian forms; but these may serve as a sufficient example 1 . 

1 Such double forms as fleurir and florir, grincer and grinder, 



22 INTRODUCTION. ^ , 

This transformation was completed by the fourteenth 
century; the monarchy, previously so weak, became all- 
powerful, and with it rose the dialect of the He de France ; 
the other dialects fell into discredit, and became* patois, while 
that of the He de France became the French language. 

In brief, the popular Latin, transported into Gaul, pro- 
duced at the end of eight centuries the ' Lafigue d'Oil/ one 
of whose divisions, or dialects, that of the He de France, sup- 
planted all the rest, and, in the fourteenth century, became 
the French language 1 . The same process went on in the 

attaquer and attacher, e core her and ecorcer, laisser and lac her, c har- 
rier and charroyer, plier and ployer, are also due to the dialects, 
and were originally the same word. Now that the history of the 
language has furnished us with the true explanation, it is amusing 
to see the grammarians decreeing that plier and ployer are dif- 
ferent in origin, and have all manner of distinctions between 
them. 

1 Let us sum up the elements of the language. Its foundation 
is popular Latin with a strong German element introduced in the 
fifth century ;' a few faint traces of • Celtic . may be noticed in 
it. When this language was fully formed, some oriental elements 
were thrown in about the thirteenth century ; in the sixteenth 
were added a number of Italian and Spanish words ; in the 
nineteenth several expressions of English origin were accepted ; 
to say nothing of the scientific words drawn from the dead 
languages and brought in by the learned, chiefly in the six- 
teenth and the nineteenth centuries. The oriental elements 
are Hebrew and Arabic. It was a favourite theory of old 
etymologists that all languages are derived from Hebrew ; but 
modern philology has proved them wrong, and has established 
as a law that 'the elements of language answer to the elements 
of races.' Now the Frenchman does not belong to the same 
face as the Jew; and such resemblances as may exist between 
their languages are accidental. When Jerome translated . the 
Old Testament into Latin he incorporated into his version 
certain Hebrew words which had no Latin equivalents, as 
seraphim, Gehenna, paseha, &c. ; from Latin they passed at a 
later time into French {seraphin, gene, pdquej. But they entered 
French from the Latin, not from the Hebrew. The same is 
the case with the Arabic; its relations with French have been 
purely accidental. To say nothing of those words which 
express oriental things, such as Alcoran, bey, cadi, caravane, 



•' , HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 2$ 

other Latin countries : the Tuscan in Italy, the Castilian in 
'Spain, supplanted the other dialects, and the Milanais, the 
Venetian, the Sicilian, or the Andalusian, and the Navarrais, 
fell from the' dignity of written dialects into the position of 
patois. 

We will now study the constitution and forms of the French 
of the thirteenth century, and take note of the path followed 
by the popular Latin since the fall of the Empire, and of the 
distance which lies between this old French and the French 
of to-day. 

Every one knows that one great difference between French 
and Latin is that French expresses the relation of words by 
their position, Latin by their form. The Latin might say 
equally well ' canis occidit lupum,' or ' lupum occidit canis ; ' 
but in French ' le chien tua le loup ' is very different from 
1 le loup tua le chien.' Latin, in fact, has declensions, French 
has none. We ask, How has this come about ? Were there 
always six cases in Latin? Has French never had more 
than one case ? Let us see what answer history will give. 

The tendency to simplify and reduce the number of cases 
appeared early in popular Latin : the rough barbarians could 
not grasp the more delicate shades of meaning expressed by 
them. They accordingly constructed a new declension to 

der-viche, Jirman, janissaire, &c, which were brought into 
the west by travellers, the French language received, in the 
middle ages, many Arabic words from another source: the 
Crusades, the scientific greatness of the Arabians, the study of 
oriental philosophies, much followed in France between the 
twelfth and fourteenth centuries, enriched the vocabulary of 
the language with many words belonging to the three sciences 
which the Arabians cultivated successfully : in astronomy it gave 
such words as azimuth, nadir, zenith; in alchemy, alcali, alcool, 
alambic, alchimie, elixir, strop; in mathematics, algebre, zero, 
chiffre. But even so these words did not come directly from 
Arabic to French ; they passed through the hands of the scien- 
tific Latin of the middle ages. In fact, the oriental languages 
have had little or no popular or direct influence on French. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

suit their wants, far more simple, but really far less efficient, 
at the cost of frequent reproduction of the same form. In 
the fifth century there were only two cases instead of six; 
the nominative to mark the subject, the accusative (chosen 
because of its frequent recurrence) for the object. Thence- 
forward the popular Latin declension was (i) subjective case, 
muru-s; (2) objective case, muru-m. This afterwards be- 
came the base of French declension for the first half of the 
middle ages ; and the Old French retained these two cases 
in the singular and plural. Thus Old French was originally 
a half-synthetic language, half-way between synthetic Latin 
and analytic modern French. 

The reader is referred to the body of this book for the 
vicissitudes of this declension. It disappeared in the four- 
teenth century : from the fifteenth century onwards the 
modern form alone remained 1 . 

It would be a folly to regret the loss of this old declen- 
sion : we can only regard it with interest as the bridge over 
which the French language has passed in its journey from 
the ancient to the modern world. It shews us too, once 
more, how parallel in their movement have been the lan- 
guage and the political history of the country. In the 
fourteenth century the social edifice built by mediaeval feu- 
dalism begins to crumble down ; first Philip the Fair, then 
Charles V, strike a fatal blow at the independence of 
nobles and clergy, and begin the reform of the monarchy, 
which is carried out by Louis XI, by Richelieu, by Louis 
XIV. Old French moved with the times, seeking to supply 
the needs of a new form of society. The movement went on 
throughout the fourteenth century ; the analytical or modern 
spirit rapidly gained ground : declension in two cases, varia- 



1 The secondary modifications, consequent on the dying out 
of this declension, are considered below, pp. 89-93. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 2$ 

ticms, of dialect, were abandoned ; and by the end of the 
century Old French was gone. The fifteenth century saw 
the birth of 'modern. French. With the mishaps and the 
shame of the House of Valois society underwent another 
change ; the spfrit of modern times began to be felt ; the 
Renaissance dawned. ^The strong and expressive language 
of Commines is very like modern French. By the time of 
the death of Louis XI, France was reorganised, and her 
language nearly complete. 

The opening of the sixteenth century brought in nothing 
new. The French of Calvin's famous ' Institution de la 
Religion Chre'tienne' (a.d. 1535) is completely ripe and full : 
it expresses with ease all shades of meaning ; and if the lan- 
guage had remained as it then was, it might have escaped 
the criticisms of Malherbe and the seventeenth -century 
savants; but it was damaged by an extravagant influx of 
foreign words, borrowed from Latin, Greek, and Italian. 

The many expeditions of Charles VIII, Louis XII, and 
Francis I across the Alps, made the Italian language familiar 
to the French. The splendour of the Italian Renaissance in 
literature and art dazzled the French mind, while the re- 
gency of Catharine dei Medicis gave the prestige of fashion 
to everything Italian. This Italian influence was omnipotent 
at the court of Francis I and Henry II, and the courtiers 
handed it down to the nation. Then appeared a number of 
hitherto unknown words : the old military terms heaume, brand, 
hauberi, &c, disappeared, and were replaced by Italian words, 
as carabine from carabina; gabion, gabbione ; es cadre, scadra; 
parapet, ^zx^etto', fantassin, fantaccino ; infanterie, infanteria; 
alerte, all'erta, &c. And not only war terms : Catharine dei 
Medicis introduced a number of words relating to court life — 
cour/isan from c0rtigi2.no; «^?d^affidato; r^tfr /#/#«, ciarlatano; 
escorte, scorta ; cameriste, camerista ; brave, bravo ; carrosse, 
carozza, &c. Terms of art also entered with Primaticcio and 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

Leonardo dei Vinci ; as balcon, balcone ; costume, costume ; 
baldaquin, baldacchino ; cadence, cadenza; cartouche, cartuccio, 
&d ; and lastly, commercial relations between the countries 
left 'some deposits in the language, such as bilan, bilancia ; 
agio, aggio ; escale, scala ; banque, banca, &c. 

The Italian party went further still, and tried to shoulder 
out French words in ordinary speech, and to substitute 
Italian ones : thus your man of taste would not deign to say 
suffire, grand revenu, la premier efois, but baster,grosse intrade, 
la premiere volte. 

To this pernicious influence may be added another, the 
mania for antiquity. It was a time of great classical fervour ; 
and the admirers of these newly-disclosed treasures despised 
the more homely French, and wished to bring in the majesty 
of expression and of thought which they found among the 
ancients. One of them, Joachim du Bellay, ventured to set 
forth a celebrated manifesto entitled ' Defense et illustration 
de la langue francaise' (a.d. 1548), in which he proposed a 
plan for the production of a more poetical and nobler lan- 
guage by the wholesale importation of Latin ' and Greek 
words in their natural state. He sought to ennoble the 
French language by borrowing largely from ancient tongues, 
and to enrich French poetry by introducing the literary forms 
employed by classical authors. 

One of the Duke of Orleans' pages, Pierre de Ronsar*d, 
a gentleman of Vendome, resolved to carry out Du Bellay's 
reform. He threw aside the indigenous French poetry, and 
abruptly introduced Latin epic poetry and Greek tragedy. 
Thanks to his efforts, France for two centuries regarded these 
two ancient forms of narrative and dramatic poetry as the 
only legitimate ones in point of good taste, and as alone 
capable of noble inspirations. Ronsard also aspired to 
reform the French language, and to destroy all the traditions 
of the past. He threw literature into a wretched course of 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 2 J 

imitation, which nearly proved fatal to its national character ; 
he recklessly seized on Greek and Latin words, and dressed 
up several hundreds of them with French terminations : lite- 
rary Latin and Greek, which had given nothing to the French 
language before 1 , now played their parts, and, thanks to 
Ronsard's school, learned words, such as ocymore, entelechie, 
oligochronien, &c, passed in from every side. Ronsard's 
disciples 2 far outstripped their master. Not satisfied with 
creating handfuls of new words, they wished to reconstruct 
words already in being, and to bring the whole language 
nearer to the Latin type. Thus, for example, the Latin 
otiosus and vindicare had produced oiseux and venger ; but 

1 We have already shewn this for the literary Latin. As 
to Greek, the two languages never came in contact with one 
another. Marseilles, the only Greek city which could have 
brought this about, was at an early date absorbed by the Ro- 
mans. There are indeed some few Greek words in early French, 
such as chere, parole; but these do not come straight from the 
Greek K&pa, napapoXr), but through the Latin which first adopted 
them and handed them on. 

2 We must distinguish between the master and his school. 
Ronsard was very far above his followers. He had real 
poetical genius, and as a reformer of language many of his 
ideas are happy and just. He recommended the pro<vignement 
(the pruning) of old words, the careful study of patois, and 
the adoption from them of fresh resources for the language : he 
was not tout brouille, as Boileau says — Boileau who treated him 
as his executioner rather than his judge. Let us add the verdict 
of M. G£ruzez upon him ; it is clear and true. ' Ronsard at first 
carried his contemporaries by storm ; and their admiration often 
led him astray. But he has been over-praised and over- 
blackened : " c'etait," as Balzac says of him, " le commencement 
d'un poete." He had enthusiasm without taste. If he has failed 
utterly in his epic and Pindaric odes, we must not forget the 
true nobility of his poetry in some passages of his Bocage royal, 
his Hymnes, and his Discours sur les miseres du temps. M. Sainte- 
Beuve has shewn that in sonnets and Anacreontic pieces, Ronsard 
ranks very high. Malherbe, who has so happily made use of 
Ronsard's efforts, ought to have blamed less severely the slips of 
the poet who was the martyr of that cause of which he himself 
became the hero.' 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

these reformers declared such forms null and void, and 
ordered men to write otieux and vindiquer instead, these 
forms being closer copies of antiquity. This absurdity was 
received M 7 ith boundless admiration : literature became the 
business of a clique, with a learned language understood 
only by the initiated. 

At last the good sense of the nation protested against 
such extravagances : and Malherbe was the head of the 
reaction. The unnatural words, so rudely thrust in, were 
instantly driven out ; most of these artificial creations were 
destroyed, and the good old French words reinstated. Still, 
several held their own, like incruster by the side of encroiiter, 
faction and facon, potion and poison, &c. Malherbe may 
have often gone too far ; but in the main he was right : 
he appealed from Latin and Greek to the Parisians. ' If 
any one asked his opinion about any French words, he 
always sent him to the street-porters at the Port au Foin, 
saying that they were his masters in language V 

He had scarcely done his work when a new mania 
attacked the language. The seventeenth century took Spain 
for its model. The wars of the League, and the Spanish 
armies in France, spread far and wide the knowledge of the 
Spanish language. The court of Henry IV was ' Spaniard- 
ized.' Sully tells us that the courtiers did nothing but 
utter Castilian cries and exclamations. Hence a number 
of words which now make their appearance for the first 
time : capita?! from capitan ; duegne, duena ; guitare, guitara ; 
haquenee, hacanea ; ca?narade, camarada ; negre, negro ; case, 
casa, &c. 

The Hotel de Rambouillet, the Precieuses, the Academy, 
and the grammarians, Vaugelas, D'Olivet, Thomas Corneille, 
continued the work which Malherbe had begun, but exag- 

1 Racan, Vie de Malherbe. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 29 

gerated their principle, and dried up the living sources of the 
language. Their task of excision and suppression was con- 
secrated by the Dictionnaire de TAcade'mie (first ed. 1694), 
which is an alphabetical collection of all words admitted into 
the French language, 'par le bon usage 1 / This book is the 
standard of the French language, as it has existed ever since. 
The language underwent very little change in the eighteenth 
century. Voltaire made some orthographical reforms (such 
as at for ot, frangais for frangois). Some grammarians 
(like the Abbe Dangeau) tried to introduce a phonetic spell- 
ing ; others dreamt of an universal language, following the 
lines traced by Bacon, Descartes, and Leibnitz. ' As the 
philosophers were for grasping what was called " the state 
of nature" in man, to mark down the progress of his sen- 
timents, passions and intelligences, so did the grammarians 
follow after the idea of a primitive language 2 .' Philosophical 
grammarians (like De Brosses, Condillac, &c.) conceived 
that there exists some one language more natural to man- 
kind than all others; and they strove to discover it by all 
means in their power. 

The introduction of new terms, which seemed to be ar- 
rested after the sixteenth century, has begun again with great 
force in our own time. The struggle between the classicists 
and the romantic school, which has gone on since 1824, the 
growth of journalism, science, and industry, and the ac- 
quaintance with foreign literatures, have all contributed to 
this result. 

These new words are of two classes, good or bad, useful 
or pernicious. Under the first class come the fifteen to 



1 Diet, de V Acad. Francaise. Ed. 1694. Preface. 

2 De Brosses meant by his ' primitive language,' not a supposed 
language when'ce all others were derived, but that which nature 
breathes into all men, as a necessary consequence of the action 
of the soul on the bodily organs. 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

twenty thousand words introduced by science and industrial 
necessities {photographie, gazometre, tele'graphie, &c.) ; as also 
do those foreign words which arise from international com- 
munication. Most of these come from the English language, 
from politics and political economy, as budget, jury, draw- 
back, warrant, bill, convict, &c; or from sport, as turf, jockey, 
festival, clown, groom, steeplechase, boxe, &c; or from industrial 
pursuits, as drainage, tender, wagon, rail, tunnel, ballast, 
express, dock, stock, &c. ; to say nothing of naval terms \ 

By the side of these valuable novelties — valuable because 
they express* new ideas — we have also faulty ones, expressing 
old ideas by new words, where older words were already in 
existence, and were understood by every one. In the 
seventeenth century every one said fonder, toucher, tromper, 
e'mouvoir, the nineteenth prefers baser, impressionner, illu- 
sionner, e'motionner , &c. Journalism and the chamber have 
flooded us with these words, and have, besides, produced 
a new development of old words, by creating a number of 
heavy ungraceful derivatives, as from regie, regler, then 
reglement, then reglementer, and at last re'glementation ; from 
constitution, constitutionnel, consiitutionnalile\ inconstituiionnaliie, 
inconstitutionnellement, &c. 

It is not easy to predict the future of the French language; 
but we may safely feel sure that it will owe its permanence 
to the balance and harmonious proportion it will establish 
between novelty and tradition, the necessary foundations of 
every language; between novelty, necessary for the expres- 
sion of new ideas, and tradition, careful guardian of old 
ideas and of the old words which express them. 

Two lessons may be learnt from this long history of the 

1 It is a curious fact that many of these English words are Old 
French words imported into England in the eleventh century 
by the Normans. Thus fashion is the old f agon ; tunnel the O. Fr. 
tonnel (now tonneau) ; and so on. 



HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 3T 

French tongue : first, that languages are not immovable and 
petrified, but living, and, like all things living, full of motion. 
Like plants and animals they spring into life, they grow, and 
they decay. ' Natura nil facit per saltum ; ' and this is as 
true of language as of the rest : by slow and almost insensible 
change it passes, as we have seen, from the rude Latin of 
Roman peasants to the polished surface of Voltaire's French. 
And next, we learn that language, being the expression or 
voice of society, changes with it : die movement of the 
language and the people is parallel. Hence we see that 
no language is perfectly rigid or at rest. The critics of the 
eighteenth century used to speak of the French language 
as being fixed at a certain epoch, round which, in a certain 
narrow circle, all good examples revolve. But philology 
has shewn us how false it is to speak of a language as fixed ; 
it changes with society: we may regret the style of Louis 
XIV, but it would be absurd to try to revive it, and apply 
it to our own times ; the people (and after all the language 
is made for them) would never learn this language of a past 
age, for it would never be able to throw itself into the same 
habitual mould and manner of thought. The action of time 
on language, as on everything, is irreparable; we can no 
more restore a language to its former state than we can 
make the oak shrink back into its acorn. The hope of 
possessing perfection must indeed be renounced ; it is not 
destined for us. ' C'est qu'en aucune chose, peut-etre, il 
n'est donne a Thomme d'arriver au but; sa gloire est d'y 
marcher V 



1 M. Guizot, Civilisation en Europe. 



32 INTR OD UC TION. 

II. 

THE FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 

Whoever looks even superficially at the French language 
will not fail to notice a distinction between such words as 
simuler, mobile, ration, which profess to be derived closely 
from Latin, and other words like sembler, meuble, raison, 
coming from the same sources, but of a shorter form, and 
apparently farther removed from their Latin ancestry. We 
have seen above 1 that these are two distinct formations of 
words, of very different origin, though both have come from 
the Latin, the one popular, the other learned; the former 
good, formed before the twelfth century, a spontaneous and 
unconscious product ; the latter modern, chiefly of the six- 
teenth century, artificial and conscious. 

But this mark of difference — the greater length affected 
by the learned words — is a merely exterior and superficial 
characteristic, with nothing certain or scientific about it. 
Naturalists never classify by length or size, but by internal 
signs and qualities ; nor does philology, which is the natural 
history of language, distinguish popular words by their 
length, but by certain internal characteristics. These 
specific characteristics, sure touchstones by which to test 
popular words and to separate them from words of learned 
origin, are three: (i) the continuance of the tonic accent; 
(2) the suppression of the short vowel; (3) the loss of the 
medial consonant. 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 33 

CHAPTER I. 

The continuance of the Latin accent. 

In every polysyllabic word there is always one syllable on 
which the voice rests more markedly than on the others. 
This incidence of the voice is called the tonic accent^ or simply 
the accent: thus on the word raison the tonic accent is on 
the last syllable, but in raisonndble it is on the penultimate. 
Accordingly the accented or tonic syllable is that on which 
the voice rests 1 . This accent gives each word its proper 
character, and has been well called ' the soul of the word/ 

In French it always occupies one of two places : either 
the last syllable, in words with a masculine termination, as 
chanteur, aime'r , finir ; or the penultimate, when the ending 
is feminine, as roide, porche, voyage. Similarly the accent has 
one of two places in Latin : penultimate when that syllable 
is long, as eantorem, amare, finire; and antepenultimate, 
when the penultimate is short, as rigidus, portieus, via- 
ticum. 

Look at such words carefully, and you will see that the 
syllable accented in Latin continues to be so in French ; 
or, in other words, that the accent remains where it was 
in Latin. This continuance of the accent is a general and 



1 Thus then in every word there is one accented or tonic syllable, 
and only one ; the others are unaccented or atonic. Take bd- 
tonner for an example ; in bdtonner, the accent lies on the e, while 
the d and the are atonic. Similarly in Latin, in eantorem the 
o is accented, the a and e are not. The reader is reminded once 
for all that instead of saying 'the accented syllable,' we shall 
speak always of 'the tonic syllable;' and instead of 'the un- 
accented syllable,' ' the atonic ;' terms which will recur over and 
over again. It is hardly necessary to add that this accent has 
no connection with what are commonly called accents in French 
(the grave, acute, and circumflex). These are but grammatical 
symbols, which the reader may find considered on pp. 85, 86. 



3+ 



INTRODUCTION. 



absolute law : all words belonging to popular and real 
French respect the Latin accent r all such words as portiqne 
from porticus, or viatique from viaticum, which break this 
law, will be found to be of learned origin, introduced into 
.the language at a. later time by men who were ignorant of 
the laws which nature had imposed on the transformation 
from Latin to French. We may lay it down as an infallible 
law, that The Latin accent continues in .French in all words 
of popular origin; all words which violaie this law are of 
learned origin : thus— 



LATIN. 


POPULAR WORDS. 


LEARNED WORDS. 


Alumina 


alun 


alumine 


Angelus 


dnge 


angelus 


Blasphemum 


blame 


blaspheme 


Cancer 


chancre 


cance'r 


Computum 


compte 


comput 


Debitum 


dette 


debit 


Decima 


dime 


de'cime 


Decorum 


decor 


decorum 


Examen 


essaim 


examen 


Mobilis 


meuble 


mobile 


Organum 


orgue 


orgdne 


Polypus 


poulpe 


polype 


Porticus 


porche 


portique, &c. 



You will notice that the popular forms are shorter than 
the learned ones ; as, for example, compte than comput, both 
from computum. The cause is that the learned comput 
comes from the classical Latin computum; the popular 
compte from the popular Latin comptum. 

This clearly shews the difference between classical Latin 
(the origin of learned French) and common Latin (parent 
of popular French). This fall of the penultimate atonic 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 



35 



syllable u (comp[u]tum) always took place in popular Latin, 
as saeclum, pochim, vinclum, in the Latin comedians : in- 
scriptions and epitaphs are full of such forms, as frig&us, 
virdis, tabla, oraelum, caldus, digtus, stablum, anglus, 
vincre, susp6ndre, moblis, postus, &c, the French deriva- 
tives of which are obvious. 



CHAPTER II. 

Suppression of the Short Vowel. 

We have seen that the tonic accent is a sure touchstone 
by which to distinguish popular from learned words. There 
is another me'ans, as certain, by which to recognise the age 
and origin of words — the loss of the short vowel. Every 
Latin word, as we have said, is made up of one accented 
vowel, and others not accented — one tonic and others atonic. 
The tonic always remains ; but of the atonies the short vowel, 
which immediately precedes the tonic vowel, always disappears 
in French : as in — . . 



Bon(i)tatem 

San(i)tatem 

Pos(i)tura 

Clar(i)tatem 

Sep(ti)mana 

Com(i)tatus 

Pop(u)latus 



bonle 

sanie .^ 

posture 

clarte 

semaine (O. Fr. sepmaine) 

comie' 

peuple', &c. 



Words such as circuler, circulare, which break this law 
and keep the ^hort vowel, are always of learned origin; all 
words of popular origin lose it, as cercler. This will be seen 
from the following examples : — 

D 2 



3« 





INTRODUCTION. 






LATIN. 


POPULAR WORDS. 


LEARNED WORDS. 


Ang(u)latus 


angle 




angule 


Blasph(e)mare 


bldmer (O.Fr. blasmer) 


blasphemer 


Cap(i)tale 


cheptel 




capital 


Car(I)tatem 


cherte 




charite 


Circ(u)lare 


cercler 




circuler 


Com(I)tatus 


comti 




comite 


Cum(u)lare 


combler 




cumuler 


Cart(u)larium 


chartrier 




cartulaire 


Hosp(i)tale 


hotel 




hopital 


Ijib(e)rare 


livrer 




libe'rer 


Mast(i)care 


mdcher 




mastiquer 


Nav(i)gare 


nager 




naviguer 


Op(e)rare 


ouvrer 




operer 


Pect(6)rale 


poitra.il 




pectoral 


Recup(e)rare 


recouvrer 




re'cupirer 


Sep(a)rare 


sevrer 




siparer 


Sim(u)lare 


sembler 




simuler 


Revind(I)care 


revenger 




revendiquer, &c, 



Whence an invariable rule: The short atonic syllable, which 
directly precedes the tonic vowel, always disappears in French 
words of popular origin, but is always preserved in words 
of learned origin K 

This fact is easily explained: — learned French words 
come from classical Latin, popular ones from popular Latin. 
This short atonic syllable died out of popular Latin long 
before the fall of the Empire : where the classical writer 
had alabaster, coagulare, capulator, fistulator, veteranus, 
tegularius, populares, &c, the popular dialect said, albaster, 



1 See my work an this subject, entitled Du role des -voyelles \ 
latines atones dans les langues romanes (Leipzig, 1866). 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 



37 



coaglare, caplator, fistlator, vetranus, teglarius, poplares 1 , 

&c. Naturally, then, this short syllable found no place 
whatever in the French language. 



CHAPTER III. 

Loss of the Medial Consonant. 

The third characteristic, serving to distinguish popular 
from learned words, is the loss of the medial consonant, 
i. e. of the consonant which stands between two vowels, like 
the t in mattirus. We will at once give the law of this 
change : — All French words which drop the medial consonant 
are popular in origin, while words of learned origin retain it. 
Thus the Latin vocalis becomes, in popular French, voyelle, 
in learned French vocale. There are innumerable examples 
of this : as — 



LATIN. 


POPULAR WORDS. 


LEARNED WORDS. 


Au(g)ustus 


aout 


auguste 


Advo(c)atus 


avoue 


avocat 


Anti(ph)6na 


antienne 


antiphone 


Cre(d)entia 


cr/ance 


credence 


Communi(c) are 


communier 


communiquer 


Confi(d)entia 


confiance 


'confidence 


De(c)anatus 


doyenne 


decanat 


Deli(c)atus 


de'lie 


de'licat 


Denu(d)atus 


denue' 


denude' 


Dila(t)are 


delayer 


dilater 


Do(t)are 


doner 


doter 



1 These examples are all taken from an excellent work by 
Professor Schuchardt of Gotha, entitled Vocalismus des Vulgdr- 
lateins. 



38 



INTRODUCTION. 



LATIN. 

Impli(c)are 
Li (g) are 
Re(g)alis 
Rene(g)atus 
Repli(c)are 



POPULAR WORDS. 

employer 
Her 
royal 
renie 
. replier 



LEARNED WORDS, 

impliquer 
liguer 
regale 
renegat 
repliquer, &c. 



Thus the medial Latin consonant disappears as the word 
passes into, French. The two vowels, which were separated 
by this consonant then fall together: ma(t)urus becomes 
ma-urus. The natural consequence of this clash of fully- 
sounded vowels is that they are both- dulled, and finally 
combined into one sound. Thus maturus becomes in the 
thirteenth century meur y in the sixteenth mur. After the 
Latin t went out, the vowels of ma-urus soon get flattened 
into meilr, thence they pass into a contraction of two vowels 
(ell) into one (u), and the circumflex accent indicates with 
exactness the suppression of the e 1 . 



CHAPTER IV. 

Conclusion. 

We have now considered the three distinctive signs which 
characterise popular French words; — the retention of the 
Latin accent, the suppression of the short atonic syllable, 
the loss of the medial consonant. 

Popular words, by thus retaining the tonic accent m its 
right place, shew that they were formed from the Roman 
pronunciation while it yet survived j that they were formed 



1 This contraction, or (as grammarians style it) synaeresis, is 
studied in detail in Book I, below, pp. 80-82. 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 39 

by the ear, not by the eye. But learned words, which violate 
the Latin accent and principles of pronunciation, are in 
reality barbarisms, opposed to the laws of formation of both 
the Latin and the French. For, long after Latin had be- 
come a dead language, they were created by the learned, 
who drew them out of books, and thrust them, as such, into 
the French language. Popular words, then, " are spon- 
taneous, natural, unconscious; learned words intentional, 
artificial, consciously fabricated: instinct is the mother of 
the former, reflection of the latter. 

Hence we may understand the exact time at which the 
French language came into being as a historical fact. 
French was alive and Latin dead from the day that men 
no longer naturally understood the accent of the latter. 
This Latin accent died out about the eleventh century. 
The same epoch is the date of the complete creation of the 
French language : thenceforward none but learned words 
enter in. These exotics appear in great numbers in the 
fourteenth century; Aristotle is translated by Nicolas 
Oresme, Livy by Bercheure: to express ancient ideas they 
are compelled to fashion new words, and so they transplant 
from Latin into French a crowd of words without really 
changing their original form. Thus, Bercheure writes con- 
sulate tribunitien, faction, magistral, triomphe, &c ; and 
Oreeme gives us aristocrat*?, alteration, democratic, tyrannic, 
monarchic, animosile, agonie, &c. These words violate the 
law of accent at every step. Bercheure writes colonie from 
colonia; Oresme agile from agilis, &c. This influx of 
learned words increases throughout the fifteenth century, 
it breaks bounds and floods the sixteenth century. In the 
earlier part of this Introduction x it is shewn that this inva- 
sion, arrested by Malherbe, stood still during the seventeenth 



1 Above, p. 28. 



40 INTRODUCTION, 

and eighteenth centuries, but moved on again with renewed 
energy in the nineteenth. 

These words, a language within a language, are more 
numerous than the good old words are, and many of them 
have already passed out of books into the common speech 
of men. 

Now, looked at with the eyes of a philologer, a word or 
phrase is beautiful so far as it is regular, i. e. so far as it 
obeys the laws of its formation. And therefore learned 
words, which break the true law of accent, are vexatious 
blots on the surface of a language formed regularly and 
logically : they mar the fair arrangement and harmonious 
analogy of the whole. Not that we ought to erase these 
words from our dictionaries. ' It would be ridiculous/ says 
G. Paris, in his work on Latin accent, ' to try to retrace our 
steps : the language is a fait accompli ; we cannot proscribe 
these lawless words of learned origin ; but we may be allowed 
to feel regret for their introduction into the language — so 
much destruction have they caused to the fair frame on 
which it was constructed.' And consequently the language 
of the seventeenth century, which has fewer learned words 
in it than that of the nineteenth, is, in the philologer's 
sight, more regular, better proportioned, and therefore more 
beautiful than that of our own day. For the same reason, 
the language of the thirteenth century, which has fewer of 
these blemishes, seems to the philologer to be still more 
perfect, for its perfection springs from its obedience to law. 

But this manner of valuing language can be correct only 
so far as we distinguish carefully between the form and the 
expression. 

The language of the seventeenth century, so interesting 
to the student in literature and the artist, who examine care- 
fully the great works it has produced, offers but little that 
is interesting to the philologer or the historian, who examine 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 4 1 

the language itself. In matter of form, if compared with 
the French of the previous centuries, it is a language already 
impoverished and overloaded with learned words : the 
regular structure we admired so much at the outset is alto- 
gether lost. 

But considered in its expression^ the language of the 
seventeenth century recovers its supremacy ; it is more 
analytical than that of the thirteenth century, more able to 
handle abstract ideas, and, as an instrument of expression, 
the idiom of Racine is far above that of Villehardouin. 

On the other hand, in matter of form, the farther we go 
back the more the French language improves. In the twelfth 
century it is quite popular, with not a trace of learned words. 
We shall see hereafter how this regular structure, so fair at 
first, has been overgrown in modern French, and how false 
the views which would call the earlier stages of the language 
the barbarous ones. Thus Jacob Grimm's principle, that 'the 
literary period of a language is usually that of its linguistic 
decadence/ receives another confirmation. One might even 
say that instinct makes words, and reflection spoils them ; 
in a word, that the perfection of languages is in inverse 
proportion to their civilisation ; as society grows more 
cultivated, language becomes degraded. 

Again I would remind my reader that this discussion has 
treated language not artistically but scientifically. Language, 
like the garden, may and should be studied from two points 
of view: the artist looks only at the beauty of the rose, 
the botanist studies the regularity of its structure and the 
place it holds in the vegetable world. So too with language ; 
while the literary man ought to consider it as an art, and 
mark its aesthetic beauty, our task is a different one : the 
philologer looks at form rather than expression, and seeks to 
discover the laws of its formation : an idiom is beautiful in 
his eyes when it is perfectly regular. This distinction the 



42 INTRODUCTION. 

reader must always bear in mind. Alphabet, inflexions, 
formation of words — -here are the three divisions into which 
our subject naturally falls. There is a guiding-line through 
this labyrinth — the strict distinction of popular from learned 
words ; the former spontaneous and regular, the latter con- 
scious, the arbitrary and personal work of the learned, not 
to be referred to any proper laws. One example will ex- 
plain our meaning. 

, When we say (p. 60) that the Latin ct always becomes 
it in French, as factus, fait ; octo, huit, &c, it is clear that 
we are speaking only of the popular language, and of good 
old words derived naturally from the 'rustic' Latin, and 
that we set aside such modern learned words as traction, 
factum, nocturne, <fcc, which are servile copies of Latin 
forms 3 . 

Thus, then, the distinction between popular and learned 
words forms the foundation of this book : we propose to 
reject every word introduced since the formation of the 
language. And, farther, we shall always take care to cite, 
when necessary, the Old French forms ; for they explain 
the transition, and mark, like sign-posts, the road along 
which the Latin has passed on its way towards becoming 
French. We shall . better see how this transit has been 
accomplished when the successive stages of it are under 
pur eyes. Thus, for instance, at first sight, it is hard to see 
that dme is derived from anima ; but history, our guiding- 
line, shews us that in the thirteenth century the word was 
written anme, in the eleventh aneme, in the tenth anime, which 
leads us straight to the Latin anima. 



1 The speUingfaict, traict, &c, is the grotesque and barbarous 
work of the pedants of the fifteenth century. Medieval French 
wrote, as now, fait, trait, &c. Wishing to make these words as 
like Latin as possible, the Latinists put in this c, without think- 
ing that the it already represented the Latin ct. 



FORMATION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. 43 

These Old French forms, natural go-betweens for the 
French and Latin languages, are like the runners in Lu- 
cretius who hand on from one to other the torch of life — 

1 Et, quasi cursores, vita'i lampada tradunt.' 

The Latin word passes from mouth to mouth, until, in an 
altered shape, it reaches our own days. How can we do 
better, if we would find it again without hesitation, than 
trace it regularly through the course of its whole journey ? 

We are about to enter in detail on the study of these 
chief laws which have changed Latin into French. ' To 
understand the plan of the world/ says Bacon, ' we must 
patiently dissect nature.' By patient study of particulars 
we rise to laws, which are as towers up which one climbs 
by the ladder of experience, and from whose high top 
we see far and wide. Strong in this great authority, 
we shall not be afraid of being reproached for stooping 
to the most minute details. The scientific mind, far from 
being crushed under the mass of little facts which it collects 
and observes, becomes stronger and more comprehensive 
according to the solidity with which it can found its con- 
ception of the whole on the knowledge of details. ' Wilt 
thou understand and enjoy the whole?' says Goethe; 'then 
learn to see it in its smallest parts.' 



BOOK I. 

PHONETICS, OR THE STUDY OF THE LETTERS 
OF THE ALPHABET. 

Phonetics is that part of grammar which studies the 
sounds of letters, their modifications and transformations. 
In the French language this will aim at making out the 
history of each of the letters transmitted to French from 
Latin, and will note the changes they have undergone in 
their transit. Thus, for example, if we take the letter n, 
we shall see that we may have, (i) permutation (that is, 
change), as orphaninus to orphelin ; (2) transposition, as 
stagnum to etang ; (3) addition, as laterna to lanterne ; 
(4) suppression, as infernum to enfer. 

We have here a natural division of this study, and will 
consider in due order (1) the permutation, (2) the transpo- 
sition, (3) the addition, and (4) the suppression, or subtrac- 
tion, of letters. 

In dealing with their permutations, we shall first ascend 
from French to Latin, and then descend in the reverse 
direction, from Latin to French, thus writing in due order 
the history of both the French and the Latin letters of 
the alphabet. 



PAET I. 

PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. 



CHAPTEB I. 

HISTORY OF THE FRENCH ALPHABET. 

Imagine that each word is a living organism ; then the 
consonants will be its skeleton, which cannot move without 
the help of the vowels, which are the muscles that connect 
the bones with one another. 

Thus the vowels are the moving and fugitive parts, the 
consonants the stable and resisting .elements of words. 
Consequently, the permutation of vowels is subjected to 
less certain laws than that of consonants ; they pass more 
readily from one to another. 

SECTION I. 

ORIGIN OF THE FRENCH VOWELS. 

We will consider successively the simple vowels (a, e, 
i, o, u), and the compound vowels. 

§ i« Simple Vowels. 

Before entering on the study. of vowels, let us point out 
to our reader the essential principle which is the key to the 
whole book. This is as follows : — The popular French 
language keeps the Latin tonic syllable, and suppresses both 
the short atonic syllable and the medial consonant. 

Now every Latin word has one accented vowel and others 
not accented, or, in other words, one tonic and other 



ORIGIN OF FRENCH VOWELS. 47 

atonic vowels. Let us examine each of these two classes 
separately. For example, the French a may come either 
from an accented Latin a (arbre from arbor), or from an 
atonic Latin a {amour from amorem). 

Under each of these classes we must again distinguish 
(i) the vowels short by nature (schdla), (2) those long by 
nature (amorem), and (3) those long by position, i. e. those 
followed by two consonants (fortis) 1 . 

Now, in order to pursue a methodical plan, and to include 
every possible case, we will in each instance follow the sub- 
joined paradigm, or example of method : — 



This letter comes from the Latin o : 

I. Either from an accented or (1) short, schola, ecole; (2) long 
by nature, pomum, pomme ; (3) long by position, fortis, fort. 

II. Or from an atonic (unaccented) o: short, obedire, obeir ; 
(2) long by nature, donare, donner; (3) long by position, con- 
ducere, conduire 2 . 



1 Those long by position include, beside such words as fortis, 
&c, such words as peric'lum, artic'lus, pon're, contracted from 
periculum, artieulus, ponere. Whereas the literary Latin 
wrote viridis, tabula, ponere, stabulum, &c, popular Latin 
suppressed the short penultimate (in the case of all words accented 
on the antepenultimate), and said virdis, tabla, ponre, sta- 
blum, &c, whence come the French words vert, table, pondre, 
etable, &c. This shorter form brought together two consonants 
(tabla) ; and we may class these vowels among those which are 
long by position. Properly speaking, we ought in all places to 
substitute the popular for the classical forms of Latin words ; but, 
for fear of confusing our reader, we have not done so. But it 
should be remembered that, wherever such words as tabula, 
ponere, positus, &c, occur, they must be read and pronounced 
as tab'la, pon're, postus, &c. 

2 To shorten matters, we will not repeat the words 'short,' 
1 long by nature/ ' long by position,' but will simply indicate these 
divisions by the figures ( 1 ), (2), (3). 



48 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Ft. 1. 



A. 

This letter comes from the Latin a, e, i. 

I. From an elementary a : 

i. Accented: (1) chambre, camera; dne, asinus; edge! 
cavea ; (2) voyage, viaticum ; sauvage, silvaticus ; ear, 
quare ; (3) ftamme, flamma ; char, earrus ; arbre, arbor ; 
ange, angelus. 

ii. Atonic: (1) salui, salutem; avare, avarus ; parer, 
parare; (2) panzer, vaxL&vixim; savon, saponem; (3) asperge, 
asparagus ; carre', quadratus. 

II. From an elementary e : 

i. Accented : (3) lucarne, lucerna ; lizard, lacerta. 

ii. Atonic : ( 1 ) Mayenne, Meduana ; (3) parchemin, 
pergamenum ; marchand, mercantem. 

III. From an elementary i : 

i. Accented : (3) langue, lingua ; sangle, cingulum ; 
sans, sine. 

ii. Atonic: (1) balance, bilancemj calandre, cylindrus ; 
Angoule'me, Iculisma ; (3) sanglol, singultus ; Sancerre, Sin- 
cerra ; paresse, pigritia ; sanglier, singularis ; sauvage (Old 
French salvage), silvaticus K 



1 The reader will remark that these Latin words are accented. 
I have thought this necessary, for the sake of marking clearh. 
the Latin accent in each word. 



Ch. i. Sect. i. FRENCH SIMPLE VOWELS. 49 



This letter comes from the Latin e, a, i. 

I. From an elementary e : 

i. Accented: (2) cruel, crudelis; espere, spero; regie, 
r6gula; chandelle, candela. 

ii. Atonic: (1) legume, legumen; (3) e'glise, ecel6sia ; 
semaine (O. Fr. sepmaine), septimana. 

II. From an elementary a : 

i. Accented: (1) pere, pater; chef, caput; (2) mortel, 
mortalis ; sel, sal ; amer, amarus ; noyer, necare ; aimer, 
amare; gre, gratum ; nez, nasus ; nef, navis; (3) alegre, 
alacrem. 

ii. Atonic: (2) chenil, canile; parchemin, pergamenum; 
(3) her mine, Armenia. 

III. From a primitive i : 

i. Accented: (1) trefle, trifolium; (2) sec, siccus ; ferme, 
flrmus; cep, cippus ; meche, myxa; crfte, crista; (3) An- 
gouleme, Iculisma. 

ii. Atonic : ( 1 ) metier, minare * ; menu, minutus ; be'ton, 
bitumen ; (2) devin, divinus ; deluge, diluvium. 

IV. From a ' prosthesis ' [or the prefixing a letter at the 
beginning of a word, as esprit, spiritus]. 



I. 

This letter comes from the Latin i, e, c. 

I. From a primitive i: 

i. Accented: (1) sourcil, supercilium; (2) ami, amicus; 
tpi, spica ; e'pine, spina ; ou'ir, au(d)ire. 

ii. Atonic: tier, ligare; image, imaginem; cigue, cicuta. 

E 



50 PERMUTA TION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

II. From a primitive e : 

i. Accented: (i) dix, decern; mi, m^dius; hermine, 
Armenia; (2) cire,c6ra; merci, merc6dem; tapis, tapetum; 
six, s6x; eglise, eccl6sia; Venise, Venetia; A Use, Alexia ; 
(3) ivre, 6brius. 

ii. Atonic : ( 2 ) iimon, temonem. 

III. From c : * 

It would be inaccurate to assert that the Latin c becomes 
a French i, or (more generally) that any consonant becomes 
a vowel ; but it has been observed that the double consonant 
ct, as in factus, tractus, passes in French into it, fait, trait ; 
under the influence of the vowel that precedes it 1 : traiter, 
traetare ; fait, factus ; e*troit, strictus ; ioit, tectum ; biscuit, 
biscoctus ; lait, lactem ; duit (reduit, conduit, produit, se'duit, 
&c), ductus; lit, lectum; fruit, fructus; laitue, lactuca; 
voiture, vectura; Poitiers, Pictavi; poitrail, pectorale; droit, 
Low Lat. drictus, from directus 2 . When the ct in the 
Latin is not preceded by a vowel, the double consonant is 
changed simply into /, as point, punctum ; saint, sanctum ; 
oint, unctum. 

O. 

This letter comes from the Latin o, u, au. 

I. From a primitive o : 

i. Accented: (2) nom, nomen ; raison, rationem; pondre, 
ponere. 

ii. Atonic : ( 1 ) obtir, obedire ; honneur, honorem. 



1 No notice need here be taken of technical words, such as 
strict (strictus), reduction, induction, protection, &c. [Such words 
are found in the literary, not in the popular Latin.] 

2 The form drictus is frequent in Latin texts from the fifth 
century downwards, and after a time entirely supplants the more 
correct form directus. 



Ch. i. Sect. i. FRENCH COMPOUND VOWELS. S 1 

II. From a primitive u : 

i. Accented: (i) nombre, mimerus ; (2) ponce, pumi- 
cem ; (3) ongle, lingula ; noces, nuptiae. 
ii. Atonic: (3) or tie, urtica. 

III. From a primitive au: 

i. Accented : or, aurum ; tresor, thesaurus ; chose, 
causa; clore, claudere. 

ii. Atonic : oser, ausare * ; Orleans, Aureliani. 



This letter comes from the Latin, u, i, n. 

I. From u : 

i. Accented: (2) nu, nudus; mur, murus; aigu, 
acutus ; menu, minutus. 

ii. Atonic : superbe, superbus ; munir, munire. 

II. More rarely from an atonic i : as fumier, fimarium ; 
buvait, bibebat. 

III. From a primitive n : 

In a certain number of words: such as, e'poux, sponsus; 
convent, conventus; Coutances, Constantia; moutier, in the 
thirteenth century mousiier, in the tenth monstier, from 
monasterium ; c outer (O. Fr. couster), from constare. 



§ 2. Compound Vowels. 

These are nine in number ; four of them (at, ei, oi, ui) 
formed by the help of the vowel i, the remaining five by the 
help of the vowel u (au, eau, eu, ou, ceu). 



e 2 



52 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 



AI. 

This compound sound comes either from a Latin a, or 
from a transposition of letters : 

I. From an accented a: maigre, macrum; aile, ala; 
caisse, capsa ; aime, amo ; main, manus ; semaine, septi- 
mana. 

II. From a transposition of letters : 

In this case ai springs from the junction of the two 
vowels a and i, separated in the Latin by a consonant, 
which in the transition into French has undergone trans- 
position, as contrarius, contraire 1 . 

EI. 

This compound sound comes from the Latin e, i. 

I. From e : 

i. Accented: (2) veine, vena; plein, plenus; /rein, 
frenum; haleine, halena; Reims, Remi. 
ii. Atonic : (1) seigneur, seniorem. 

II. From i : seing, signum ; f eigne, tinea ; sein, sinus. 



OI. 



This compound vowel comes : — 

I. From the reciprocal attraction of the vowels o and i, 
separated in Latin by a consonant : histoire, historia ; poison, 
potionem ; temoin, testimonium. 

II. From a long e : avoine, avena ; soir, serus ; crois, 
credo ; toile, tela ; voile, velum ; hoir, heres ; &c. 

III. From i : vote, via ; soif, sitis ; poil, pilus ; poivre, 
piper ; pois, pisum ; /oi, fides ; poire, pirum ; &c. 

1 See below, the chapter on Transposition, p. 77. 



Ch. I. Sect. i. FRENCH COMPOUND VOWELS. $$ 

UI. 

This compound vowel comes from the Latin o : put's, 
post ; cuir, corium ; muid, modius ; huitre, ostrea ; huis, 
ostium 1 ; cuire, coquere; hup, hodie ; Le Puy, Podium. 
In some other cases it is the result of an attraction of the 
Latin vowels u and i, separated by a consonant: juin, 
Junius ; aiguiser, acutiare *. 

AU, EAU. 

Au is a softened form of the Latin al, eau of the Latin el. 

I. From al : autre, alter ; aube, alba ; sauf, salvus ; auge, 
alveus ; saut, saltus ; jaune, galbinus. 

II. From el : beau, bellus ; Meaux, Meldi ; chdteau, eas- 
tellum. 

EU, CETJ. 

This compound vowel comes from an accented o : heure, 
hora ; seul, solus ; leur, illorum ; preuve, proba ; a'ieul, 
aviolus * ; neveu, nepotem ; queux, coquus ; feuille, folia ; 
meule, mola; ceuf, ovum; cceur, cor; Meuse, Mosa; sceur, 
soror ; mceurs, mores ; vceu, votum ; nceud, nodus ; ceuvre, 
opera ; couleur, colorem ; neuf, novus ; neuf, novem. 

OU. 

This compound vowel comes from the Latin o, u, 1. 
I. From o : 

i. Accented : couple, copula ; nous , nos ; vous, vos • 
roue, rota. 

1 The Old French huis signifies a * gate.' Though now 
obsolete, it survives in huissier (properly a porter, Engl, usher), 
and in the phrase ' a huis clos,' ' with closed doors.' 

2 Hui in the word aujourcPhui. For the explanation of this 
word see p. 155. 



54 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

ii. Atonic: (i) couleur, colorem; (3) fourmi, formica; 
moulin, molinum; souloir, solere; douleur, dolorem ; cou- 
ronne, corona. 

II. From u : 

i. Accented : coupe, cupa; outre, uter : A dour, Aturis; 
coude, cubitus ; four, furnus ; ours, ursus ; tour, turris ; 
sourd, surdus. 

ii. Atonic: gouverner, gubernare; Angouleme, Iculisma. 

III. Froml: 

In this case ou is only a softened form of the Latin 
ol, ul: mou, mollis; cou, collem ; ecouter (O. Fr. escolter), 
auscultare ; poudre, pulverem ; soufre, sulphurem ; pouce, 
pollicem; coupable, culpabilis. 



IE, IEU. 

I. The compound vowel ie comes from the Latin ia, e : 

i. From ia accented : veniel, venialis; chre'tien, christi- 
anus; Amiens, Ambiani. 

ii. From e accented : fier, ferns ; fiel, fel ; hier, h6ri ; 
miel, m61 ; lien, bene ; lievre, leporem ; tient, tenet ; fievre, 
febris ; pierre, petram ; rien, r6m ; hieble, 6bulum. 

For the vowels ie in -ier (premier, primarius) see 
below, p. 107. 

II. The compound vowel ieu comes from either e, as 
Dieu, Deus ; or from o, as lieu, locus. 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. ORIGIN OF FRENCH CONSONANTS. 



55 



SECTION II. 

ORIGIN OF THE FRENCH CONSONANTS. 

The consonants may be divided into natural groups of 
Labials, Dentals, and Gutturals, answering to the different 
parts of the vocal mechanism. 

Classification of Consonants. 



LIQUIDS. 


LABIALS. 


GUTTURALS. 


DENTALS. 




1, m, n 3 r. 


b,v. 


£» J- 


d, z (s). 


soft. 


p,f. 


(q, k, c) ch. 


t, s (x). 


hard. 



§ i. Liquids : n, m, I, r, 11, mm, nn, rr. 



N. 

This letter comes from the Latin n, m, 1. 

I. From a primitive n : 

i. Initial : nous, nos ; nez, nasus. 

ii. Medial: ruine, ruina; regne, regnum; mentir, 
mentiri. 

iii. Final : son, sonus; raison, rationem; etain, stagnum. 

II. From a primitive m : 

i. Initial : nappe, mappa; nefle, mespilum; natte, matta. 

ii. Medial: sente, semita; conter, computare; singe, 
simius ; daine, dama ; printemps, primum-tempus. 

iii. Final : rien, rem ; airain, aeramen ; mon, ton, son, 
meum, tuum, suum. 



56 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

III. From a primitive 1 : 

Niveau (O. Fr. nivel), libella 1 ; poterne (O. Fr. posterne, 
and very O. Fr. poster le), posterula ; marne (O. Fr. marie), 
margula. 

M . 
This letter comes from the Latin m, n, b : 

I. From a primitive m : 

i. Initial : mer, mare ; main, manus ; mere, mater. 
ii. Medial : froment, frumentum ; chambre, camera ; 
compter, computare. 

iii. Final : daim, dama ; nom, nomen ; faim, fames. 

II. From a primitive n: ?iommer, nominare; charme, 
carpinus. 

III. From a primitive b : samedi, sabbati dies. 

L. 

This letter comes from the Latin 1, r, n. 

I. From a primitive 1 : 

i. Initial : loutre, lutra ; lettre, littera ; langue, lingua. 

ii. Medial : aigle, aquila ; fits, filius ; cercle, circulus ; 
cable, capulum. 

iii. Final : seul, solus ; poil, pilus ; sel, sal ; sourcil, 
supereilium. 

II. From a primitive r: autel, altare; crible, cribrum; 
palefroi, paraveredus, in the fifth century parafredus ; flair er, 
fragare. 

III. From a primitive n: orphelin, orphaninus * ; Paler me, 
Panormus ; Roussillon, Ruscinonem ; Bologne, Bononia ; 
Chateau- Landon, Castellum-Nantonis. 

1 And compare the English IcveL 



I Ch. i. Sect. 2. FRENCH LIQUIDS. 57 

R. 

This letter comes from the Latin r, I, s, n. 

I. From a primitive r : 

i. Initial : regne, regnum ; deroute, derupta. 

ii. Medial : souris, soricem ; charme, carmen ; droit, 
Low Lat. drictus for directus. 

iii. Final : ver, vermis ; cor, eornu ; enfer, infernum ; 
hiver, hibernum. 

II. From a primitive 1 : 

i. Initial :" rossignol, lusciniola *.* 

ii. Medial : orme, ulmus ; remorque, remulcum ; esclan- 
dre, scandalum ; chartre, cartula ; chapitre, capitulum. 

III. From a primitive s : Marseille, Massilia ; orfraie, 
ossifraga; varlet, vassaletus*. 

IV. From a primitive n : ordre, ordinem \ pampre, pam- 
pinus ; timbre, tympanum ; diacre, diaconus ; coffre, cophi- 
nus ; Londres, Londinum. 

LL. 

This double consonant comes from the Latin 11, Ha, lea, 
cl, gl, tl, chl : 

I. From 11 : anguille, anguilla ; bouillir, bullire ; faillir, 
fallere. 

II. From lia, lea : fille, jfilia ; Marseille, Massilia ; paille, 
palea. 

III. From cl, gl, tl, chl : oreille, auricula ; se ille, situla ; 
veiller, vigilare ; treille, trichila ; volatile, volatilia. 

1 This change of 1 into r had taken place in the late Latin 
texts long before the birth of the French tongue : thus, while 
we find lusciniola in Plautus and Varro, we find in the Mero- 
vingian MSS. only the forms rusciniola, roseiniola. 



58 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. 1. 

MM. 

This double consonant comes from the Latin mm, mn : 

I. From mm : flamme, flamma ; somme, summa. 

II. From mn : femme, femina ; somme, somnus ; sommeil, 
somniculus * ; homme, hominem. 

M. 
This comes from the Latin mn: colonne, columna; or 
from gn : connaitre, cognoseere. 

BR. 

This double consonant comes from the Latin tr, dr : 

L From a' primitive tr : pierre, petra ; verre, vitrum ; 

larron, latronem ; pourrir, putrere ; parrain, patrinus ; 

marraine, matrina. 

II. From a primitive dr : carre, quadratum ; arriere, 

adretro ; carrefour, quadrifurcus. 

§ 2. Labials : p, b,/{ph), v, w. 

P. 

From the Latin p : 

i. Initial : pain, panis ; pre, pratum, 
ii. Medial : couple, copula ; etouppe, stuppa ; sapi'n, 
sapinus. 

iii. Final : hup, lupus ; champ, campus ; cep, cippus. 

B. 

This letter comes from the Latin b, p, v, m. 
I. From a primitive b : 

i. Initial : boire, bibere ; bon, bonus. 

ii. Medial : diable, diabolus ; arbre, arbor. 

iii. Final : plomb, plumbum. 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. FRENCH LABIALS. 59 

II. From a primitive p : double, duplus ; cable, capulum ; 
abeille, apicula. 

III. From a primitive v : courber, curvare ; brebis, ver- 
vecem ; cor beau, corvellus ; Besangon, Vesontionem ; Bazas. 
Vasatae. 

IV. From m : flambe, flam ma ; marbre, marmor. 



P, Ph. 

The French language contains a great number of scien- 
tific and learned terms, like physique, philosophic, triomphe. 
in which the Greek letter (f>, Lat. ph, is to be met with. It 
would be superfluous to enumerate such elementary and 
obvious derivations ; we will therefore limit ourselves to the 
remark that the French/* comes from the Latin f, ph, v, p. 

I. From f, ph : 

i. Initial: faux, falcem ; faisan, phasianus; fumier, 
fimarium. 

ii. Medial: orfraie, ossifraga; orfevre, aurifaber; coffre, 
cophinus. 

hi. Final : tuf, tofus. 

II. From a primitive v : 

i. Initial : fois, vice. (For the change of the Latin i 
into oi, see p. 52.) 

ii. Medial: palefroi, parafredus, form of the common 
Latin for paraveredus. 

iii. Final : vif, vivus ; suif, sevum ; nef, navis ; boeuf, 
bovis ; ceuf, ovum ; sauf, salvus ; serf, servus ; cerf 
cervus. 

III. From p : chef, caput ; nefle, mespilum ; fresaie y 
praesaga. 



6o PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

V. 

This letter comes from the Latin v, b, p. 

I. From a primitive v : 

i. Initial : viorne, viburnum ; viande, vivenda \ 
ii. Medial : chauve, calvus ; gencive, gengiva. 

II. From a primitive b : /eve, faba ; cheval, caballus ; 
avoir, habere ; levre, labrum ; souvent, subinde ; ivre, 
ebrius; #z>##/.ab-ante; livre, libra; niveau, libella; prouver, 
probare ; Vervins, Verbinum. 

III. From a primitive p : rive, ripa ; se've, sapa ; louve, 
lupa ; cheveu, capillum ; chevre, capra ; savon, saponem ; 
savoir, sapere ; crever, crepare. 

§ 3. Dentals : t, th, d, s, z, x,j. 

T. 

This letter comes from the Latin t, <L 

I. From a primitive t : 

i. Initial ; toison, tonsionem ; taon, tabanus. 
ii. Medial : mature, materia ; etat, status ; chateau, 
castellum. 

iii. Final : huit, octo ; cuit, eoetus ; fait, factus. 

II. From a primitive d : dont, de-unde \ vert, viridis ; 
souvent, subinde; Escaut, Scaldis. 

The Greek th is only found in technical and learned 
terms, such as theocratie, theologie, &c. 

1 Originally viande signified vegetable as well as animal nutri- 
ment. Rabelais tells us * les poires sont njiandes tres salubres ;' 
and, so late as 1607, in his tragedy, Le Triomphe de la Ligue, 
Nereus says, speaking of God, 

'II donne la viande aux jeunes passereaux' — 

a line from which Racine drew his famous 

'Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pat".re.' 



Ch. j. Sect. 2. FRENCH DENTALS. 6 1 

D. 

This letter comes from the Latin d, t. 

I. From a primitive d ; 

i. Initial : devoir , debere ; dans, de-intus ; dime, decimus. 

ii. Medial : tiede, tepidus ; emeraude, sm&r&g&ua; vendre, 
vendere. 

iii. Final : sourd, surdum ; muid t modius ; froid, 
frigidus. 

II. From a primitive t : 
i. Initial : done, tunc. 

ii. Medial : coude, cubitus ; Adour, Aturis ; Lodeve, 
Luteva. 

iii. Final : lezard, lacerta ; marchand, mercantem. 

S. 

This letter comes from the Latin s, c, t. 

I. From a primitive s : 

i. Initial : seul, solus ; serment, sacramentum ; sous, 
subtus. 

ii. Medial: cerise, cerasus; maison, mansionem; asperge, 
asparagus ; Gascogne, Vasconia. 

iii. Final : mais, magis ; ours, ursus ; epars, sparsus ; 
sous, subtus ; moins, minus. 

II. From t followed by the compound vowels ia, ie, 
io, iu : 

ii. Medial : poison, potionem ; rat 'son, rationem ; oiseux, 
otiosus; Venise, Venetia; saison, sationem; trahison, tra- 
ditionem ; liaison, ligationem. 

iii. Final : palais, palatium ; tiers, tertius. 

III. From a soft c : 

i. Initial : s angle, cingulum. 

ii. Medial : plaisir, placere ; voisin, vicinus ; moisir, 



6% PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

mucere; oiseau (O. Fr. oisel, from the common Latin form 
aucellus), avicellus ; Amboise, Ambaeia. 

Note that the double consonant ss comes from the Latin 
x ; as for example, essai, exagium J essai'm, examen ; laisser, 
laxare ; essorer, exaurare : also from an ss, as casser, quas- 
sare ; fosse, fossa. 

Z. 

This letter comes from the Latin s or soft c : 

I. From s: chez, casa; ?iez, nasus; rez, rasus (rez-de- 
chaussee) ; assez, ad-satis; lez, latus; as in Plessis-lez- Tours, 
Passy-lez-Paris. 

II. From a soft c : lezard, laeerta ; onze, undeeim ; douze, 
duodecim, &c. 

X. 

From the Latin x, s, e. 

I. From a primitive x : six, sex ; soixante, sexaginta. 

II. From a primitive s : deux, duos ; toux, tussis ; epoux, 
sponsus ; roux, russus ; oiseux, otiosus ; vineux, vinosus. 

III. From a primitive c : dix, decern ; voix, vocem ; 
noix, nucem ; paix, pacem ; chaux, caleem ; faux, falcem. 



From the Latin j, g, i. 

I. From a primitive j : 

i. Initial : fean, Johannes j jeune, jejunium ; jeune, 
juvenis. 

ii. Medial : parjure, perjurium. 

II. From g : jouir, gaudere ; jumeau, gemellus ; jaune , 
galbinus; Anjou, Andegavi. 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. FRENCH GUTTURALS. 6$ 

III. From i : Jerusalem, Hierosolyma ; jour, diurnum ; 
Jerome, Hieronymus; goujon, gobionem; Dijon, Dibionem. 
For the change from i to j, see page 65. 



§ 4. Gutturals : c, q, k, ch, g, h. 

C. 

C is pronounced gutturally before a, 0, and u, and is then 
called hard: before e, i, and ce, it is pronounced as a dental, 
and is called soft. 

I. C hard. From the hard c of the Latins, or its equi- 
valent q : 

i. Initial : coque, concha ; coquille, conchylium ; car, 
quare ; casser, quassare ; cot, quietus. 

ii. Medial: second, secundus; chacun (O. Fr. chascun), 
quisque-unus. 

iii. Final : lacs, laqueus ; one, unquam ; sec, siccus. 

II. C soft. From the Latin c soft : ciment, caementum ; 
ciel, caelum; cite, citatem*, a common Latin form much 
used under the Empire for civitatem. 

K. 

This letter is employed in French terms of mensuration, 
as the barbarous equivalent for the Greek x, which ought 
properly to be rendered by ch: thus kilometre is a double 
barbarism for chiliometre, x&iopcrpov. 

Q. 

This letter comes from the Latin c hard, qu, ch. 

i. Initial : quel, qualis ; queue, cauda ; queux, coquus. 
ii. Medial : iranquille, tranquillus ; coquille, conchylium. 
iii. Final : cinq, quinque. 



64 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. 1. 

CH. 

From the Latin c hard 1 : 

i. Initial : chef, caput ; chose, causa ; chandelle, can- 
dela ; chandeleur, candelarum [festa] ; chevre, capra. 

ii. Medial: louche, yyv&Qa,) miche^ mica ; perche, pertica ; 
fourche, furca ; mouche, musca ; secher, siccare. 

iii. Final : Auch, Auscia. 

G hard. 
From the Latin g hard, c hard, q, v, n. 

I. From a primitive g hard: 

i. Initial : goujon, gobionem ; gout, gustus. 

ii. Medial : angoisse, angustia ; sangle, cingulum. 

iii. Final : long, longus ; e'tang, stagnum ; potng, pugnus. 

II. From c hard: 

i. Initial : gobelet, cupelletum* ; gras, crassus ; gonfler, 
conflare. 

ii. Medial : maigre, macrum ; langouste, locusta ; vi- 
guier, vicarius ; cigogne, ciconia. 

III. From a primitive v : Gascogne, Vasconia ; gut, viscum ; 
gue', vadum ; game, vagina ; guepe, vespa ; sergent, ser- 
vientem ; Gard, Vardo ; Gapengais, Vappincensium ; gdter 
(O. Fr. gaster), vastare ; guivre, vipera. 

IV. From a Latin n followed by a vowel : cigogne, ciconia ; 
Digne, Dinia ; Auvergne, Arvernia ; oignon, unionem ; 
Boulogne, Bononia. 

G soft. 
From the Latin g and the suffixes ia, ea. 
I. From a primitive g : 



1 And from the Greek x i n such technical terms as ckirographe 
(xeipoypafyos), chaos (xaoi), &c. 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. FRENCH GUTTURALS. 6$ 

i. Initial: gencive, gingiva; ge'ant, gigantem; geindre, 
gemere. 

ii. Medial : large, largus. 

II. From the diphthongs ia, io — ea, eo. 

We learn from Quinctilian that the Roman i and j had 
originally the same sound. For a long time a great uncer- 
tainty existed as to the use of these two letters. Old MSS. 
and, after them, printed books down to the middle of the 
seventeenth century use i and j indifferently : it was not till 
the year 1750 that the French Academy recognised/ in their 
Dictionary as an independent letter. This is why the Latin i 
in some cases has become j in French (or g soft, which is the 
same thing). Hierosolyma, simia, diurnus, vindemia, have 
passed into Jerusalem, singe, jour, vendange, proving clearly 
that the popular pronunciation of these words was Hjeroso- 
lyma, simja, djurnus, vindemja. This once granted, it is 
easy to see how pipionem, tibia, rabies, Dibionem, dilu- 
vium, cambiare *, abbreviare, &c, have respectively passed 
into pigeon, tige, rage, Dijon, deluge, changer, abreger, &C. 1 
In these words two successive alterations have taken place : 
(1) from i into/, or (as the Germans call it) the 'consonni- 
fication ' of the letter i (thus pipionem is pronounced pipjo- 
nem ; rabies, rabjes, Dibionem, Dibjonem, &c.) ; (2) this 
change of 2 into j brings two consonants together, and into 
a sort of collision (pipionem becoming pipjonem, &c). Now 
(as we will shew later on 2 ) in such cases the first of the 
two consonants disappears ; subjectus becomes sujet, dor- 
sum, dos ; and similarly pipjonem, tibja, rabjes, &c, become 
pijonem, tija, rajes, &c, whence again come pigeon, tige, 
rage, &c. 



1 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the French 
/ is always a soft sibilant, not a soft mute, like our /. 

2 Seep. 81. 

F 



66 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt.i. 

Similarly, ea, eo, eu, pass into je, ge, &c. In the regular 
Latin forms lanea, commeatus, cavea, hordeum, deusque, 
the e was soon replaced by i, and, long before Merovingian 
days, inscriptions give us as the usual forms, lania, com- 
miatus, cavia, hordium, diusque. These diphthongs ia, iu, 
next exchange their i for j after the rule just noticed ; and 
then lania, commiatus, cavia, hordium, diusque, having 
become lanja, comjatus, cavja, hordjum, djusque, passed 
naturally into lange, conge, cage, orge, jusque, &c. 

H. 

From the Latin h, f : 

I. From a primitive h : homme, hominem ; hier, heri ; 
hut (in the word aujourd'hui), hodie. 

II. From f: hors, foris; hormis, foris-missum 1 . 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORY OF THE LATIN ALPHABET. 

The history of the French Alphabet has led us from effect 
to cause, from French to Latin ; and we have ascended the 
stream of transformation to its source. We must now follow 
the reverse course, in studying the history of the Latin letters, 
examining and describing the modifications they have under- 
gone before they have descended into the French Alphabet. 
To avoid useless repetition, we will give as few examples 



1 Hdbler does not come directly from the Latin, but from the 
Spanish hablar (fabulari), and cannot be traced back beyond 
the sixteenth century. The Latin f followed by a vowel is always 
commuted into h in Spanish, if at the beginning of a word. Thus 
fabulari, facere, faba ; formica, become hablar, hacer, haba, 
hormigua. 



Ch. 2. Sect. i. LATIN TONIC VOWELS. 6 J 

as possible, and will refer our readers back to the paragraphs 
of the first part of this subject, where he will find a sufficient 
number of illustrations gathered together. 

SECTION I. 

HISTORY OF THE LATIN VOWELS. 

Every word is composed of an accented or tonic syllable, 
and of one or more atonic, or unaccented, syllables, which 
either precede or follow the tonic syllable. For example, in 
the word mercatus the a is the tonic vowel; e and u the 
atonic vowels. In writing the history of the Latin vowels 
we may study first the accented or tonic ones, then the 
unaccented or atonic. 

§ i. Accented or Tonic Vowets. 

Among accented vowels we may distinguish (i) the short, 
(2) the long, ('3) those long by position (i. e. followed by 
two consonants). This subdivision may seem too fine and 
minute ; but it is in reality an important one, as will be seen 
by an example. Ferum, avena, ferrum, have each an ac- 
cented e; but their resultants in French are very different 
from one another : — the short e becomes ie, as ferns, fier ; 
. the long becomes oi, as avena, avoine; the e long by position 
becomes simple e, as ferrum, fer. 

A. (1) a usually becomes ai in French: amo, aime ; 
macer, maigre. (2) a becomes e : nasus, nez ; amare, 
aimer ; mprtalis, mortel. (3) a long by position remains a 
in French : arbor, arbre ; carnis, char ; carmen, charme. 

E. (1) e becomes ie: levium, lie'ge ; ferus, fier. (2) e 
becomes oi\ regem, rot; legem, loi. (3) e long by position 
suffers no change : terra, terre ; lepra, lepre . 

I. (1)1 becomes oi: pirum, poire ; pilus, poil ; niger, 
noir ; fides, foi. (2) I suffers no change: spica, epi ; 

F 2 



68 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt.i. 

am'cus, ami; spina, epine. (3) i long by position becomes e : 
siccus, sec ; cippus, cep ; crista, crete ; firmus,/ erme. 

O. (1) 6 becomes eu; novem, neuf '; mola, meule ; proba, 
preuve. (2) 6 gives also eu: mobilis, meuble ; solus, seul ; 
hora, heure. (3) o long by position remains unchanged : 
corpus, corps ; fortis, fort ; mortem, mort ; ponere, 
pondre. 

U. (1) x becomes ou : lupus, hup; jugum, joug ; 
cubo, couver. (2) u remains unchanged: murus, mur ; 
acutus, aigu ; -purus, pur. (3) u long by position becomes 
ou: ursus, ours; gutta, goutte ; surdus, sourd ; turris, 
tour \ 

AE. ae becomes e or ie : caelum, del; laeta, lie 2 . 

AU. au becomes : causa, chose ; aurum, or ; auricula, 
oreille. 

§ 2. Atonic Vowels. 

The tonic vowel of a Latin word always survives in 
French : it is not so with the atonic vowels. If we would 
understand what they exactly become when they pass intp 
French, we must study (1) those which precede the tonic 
syllable (as the e in mercatum), and (2) those which follow 
it (as the u in mercatum). 

(1) Atonic Vowels which precede the Tonic Syllable. 

We may subdivide these into two classes : (a) atonies 
which immediately precede the tonic syllable (as the second 



1 Note here that short accented vowels in Latin are always 
represented by diphthongs in French: a, e, 1, 6, u, becoming 
respectively ai, ie, oi, eu, ou. 

2 Lie, the Old French signifying * joyful,' has survived in the 
expression 'faire chere lie' (literally 'to wear a glad face'), 
to greet one with a smiling face, give one a warm welcome, 
and thence to give one a good dinner, a well-known form of 
welcome. 



Ch. 2. Sect. I. LATIN ATONIC VOWELS. 69 

i in vindicare), and (b) those which precede it, but not 
immediately (as the first i in vindicare). 

(a) Those which immediately precede the tonic syllable. 
These, if long, invariably remain unchanged: peregrinus, 
pelerin ; coemet6rium, cimetiere ; &c. If short, they disap- 
pear 1 ; sanitatem, sanl/; bDnitatem, bonte' ; ehristianitatem, 
chre'iiente' ; positura, posture ; septimana, semaine ; clari- 
tatem, clarte ; comltatem, comte ; clericatus, clerge' 2 ; &c. 

(b) Those which precede the tonic syllable, but not immediately. 
Short or long, these vowels are always retained in French : 
vestimentum, v element ; ornamenta, ornement ; &c. 

(2) Atonic Vowels which come after the Tonic Syllable. 

By the rule of Latin accentuation these vowels can occupy 
only one of two positions : that is, either in the penultimate 
(as u in tabula) or in the last syllable (as the u in mer- 
catum). 

(a) In the penultimate syllable. As this case occurs only 
when the word is accented on the antepenultimate (third 
syllable counting from the end of the word), it is always 
a short syllable in Latin : as saeculum, luridus, tumulus, 
pertica, ponere, legere, facere, &c. This vowel, being- 
absorbed by the tonic syllable, was scarcely sounded at all, 
and, though the high-class Roman may have indicated it in 
his speech, it is certain the common people dropped all 
such delicacies of pronunciation. In all the fragments of 
popular Latin that still remain with us (the ' Graffiti ' of 
Pompeii, inscriptions, epitaphs, &c.) the short penultimate is 

1 This suppression of the short atonic vowel had already taken 
place in vulgar Latin, as we have shewn in the Introduction, 

P. 35. 

2 Except when they are the vowels of the first syllable of a 
wcrd (as bilancem, caballus, balance, chcvat) ; for in this case 
the first syllable could not disappear without so mutilating the 
word as to destroy its identity. 



yo PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. r. 

gone : instead of computus, oraculum, tabula, sa6culum, 
positus, mobilis, vincere, suspendere, &c, we find only 
comptum, oraclum, tabla, saeclum, postus, moblis, vincre, 
suspendre, &C. 1 Then, when this common Latin became 
French, the words thus contracted became in their turn 
compte, oracle, table, Steele, poste, meuble, vaincre, suspendre, &c. 

It is not necessary to say any more about this law : we 
may simply express it as follows : — When a Latin word is 
accented on the antepenult, the penultimate vowel always dis- 
appears in the French word derived from it. 

(b) In the last syllable. This disappears in French : 
siccus, sec ; caballus, cheval ; porcus, pore ; mare, mer ; 
mortalis, mortel ; — or else (which comes to the same thing) 
it drops into an e mute : cupa, coupe ; firmus, ferme ; &c. 

SECTION II. 

HISTORY OF THE LATIN CONSONANTS. 

As we have seen above, consonants fall into natural 
groups (Labials, Dentals, and Gutturals), answering to the 
various parts of the vocal machinery. The permutation that 
goes on between Latin and French consonants rests upon 
two principles. 

i. Permutations take place between consonants of the 
same class (that is, those formed by the same organ). 
Given, for example, the group of labials p, b, v,f. We know 
that these letters will be interchanged, but that permutation 
will not pass beyond their limits. Thus the Latin b becomes 
in French either b (arbre from arbor), or v (as couver from 
cubare) ; but it will never be permuted into, let us say, 
z or g. 

1 M. Schuchardt in his Vokalismus des Fulgarlateins, ii. 35, has 
collected a vast number of examples of this law. 



LATIN LIQUIDS. Jl 

2. In addition to this fact of permutation being limited to 
the groups, we must also notice that even within the limits 
of each group, permutation does not go on by chance. 
Thus in the labial group p, b, v, f, we have 1 two strong 
consonants, p and f, and two weak ones, b and v. All 
transmutation is from strong to weak. Thus the Latin b 
never becomes p in French, but the contrary transition is 
frequent. 

We propose to refer back, as much as we can, to the 
examples given under the history of the French Alphabet. 
In addition to the simple letters we will consider also the 
composite ones (lr, mr, &c.) ; for they produce in French 
many interesting combinations. 

§ i . Liquids : 1, m, n, r. 
L. 

This letter becomes in French /, r, u. For examples we 
refer the reader to these letters, above, pp. 56, 57. 

tl becomes il : situla, seille ; vetulus, vieil. 

cl, when initial, is unchanged in French : clarus, clair. 
When final, it becomes il : oculus, ml ; apicula, abeille ; 
auricula, oreille. 

gl, when initial, is unchanged : gladiolus, glaieul. When 
medial, it becomes il: vigilare, veiller ; coagulare, (O. Fr. 
coailler), cailler ; tegula, tuile. 

pi, when initial, is unchanged : plorare, pleurer. Final, it 
becomes il: scopulus, /cuet'l. 

bl, fl, always remain unchanged : ebulum, hieble ; inflare, 
enfler. 

1 See the tabular statement of the consonants on p. 55. 



JZ PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt.f. 

M. 

In French m becomes m, n, b. For examples see above, 

PP- 55, 56, 58. 

mn becomes mm, m : femina, femme ; hominem, homme ; 
nominare, nommer ; lamina, lame ; domina, dame ; examen, 
essaim. 

mt becomes /, nt, ml: dorinitorium, dortoir ; comitem, 
comte ; computare, confer ; semitarium, sentier. 

N. 

In French n, r, I. For examples see above, pp. 55-57. 

tim becomes m : anima, dme ; Hieronymus, Jerome. 

ns becomes s : mansionem, maison ; mensem, mot's ; 
insula (O. Fr. isle), lie ; sponsus, epoux ; constare (O. Fr. 
couster), couter. 

rn always drops the n at the end of words : furnum, 
four ; cornu, cor ; djurnum, jour; hibernum, hiver ; alber- 
num, aubour ; carnem, chair. 



In French r, /. For examples see above, pp. 56, 57. 

rs becomes s : dorsum, dos ; persiea (O. Fr. pesche), 
peche ; Lat. quercus, Low Lat. quercinus, O. Fr. caisne, 
chesne, Fr. chene 1 . 

We must add to these changes another of no small im- 
portance, which we may call the intercalation, or insertion, of 
fresh letters between two liquids. Words such as humilis, 
cumulus, &c, whose short penultimate dropped away (see 
above, p. 35) became humlis, cumlus, &c. Now this com- 



1 Quercinus was so early corrupted into casnus that we find 
this latter word, used for an oak, in a Chartulary dated a.d. 508. 
From casnus came in the eleventh century the O. Fr- caisne, 
then chesne, then chene. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. LATIN DENTALS. J$ 

bination of two liquids being unpleasant to the ear, the 
letter b was intercalated, and thus humlis became hum(b)le. 
cumlus passed into com(b)le, &c. 
These are the intercalations: 

i. ml becomes mbl: simulo, semble ; insimul, ensemble. 

2. mr becomes mbr: numerus, nombre ; camera, 
chambre ; Cameracum, Cambrai ; cucumerem, concombre. 

3. lr becomes udr through Idr: molere (O. Fr. moldre), 
moudre ; fulgur (O. Fr. foldre), foudre ; pulver (O. Fr. 
poldre), poudre. The Old French forms indicate the method 
of the change more clearly than the modern forms do. 

4. nl becomes ngl: spinula, e'pingle. 

5. nr becomes ndr : ponere, pondre ; gener, gendre ; 
tener, tendre ; Portus -Veneris, Port-Vendres ; veneris- 
dies, vendredi ; minor, moindre. 

§ 2. Denials : t, d, z, s. 

T. 

T becomes in French /, d, s. For examples see above, 
pp. 60, 61. 

It disappears from the ends of words, whenever, in the 
Latin, it stands between two vowels : gratum, gre ; amatum, 
aime' ; minutus, menu ; virtutem, vei'tu ; acutus, aigu ; 
scutum, e'cu ; abbatem, abbe. It also disappears from the 
middle of words : catena (O. Fr. c/iaene), chaine ; maturus 
(O. Fr. mazir), mur ; &c. This subject will be treated of 
more fully when we deal with the Syncopation of Consonants. 

tr becomes r : fratrem, frere ; matrem, mere ; patrem, 
pere ; Matrona, Marne; — alsorr: vitrum, verre ; putrere, 
pourrir ; nutritus, nourri ; latronem, larron ; materiamen, 
merrain ; matriclarius (O. Fr. marreglier), marguillier. 

st becomes sometimes (but rarely) s : angustia, angoisse; 
testonem* (from testa), lesson. 



74 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

D. 

In French d, I. For examples see above, pp. 60, 61. 

dr becomes r : oceidere, occire ; cathedra, chair e ; cre- 
dere, croire ; quadragesima (O. Fr. caraesme), careme. 

dj, dv drop the dental: adjuxtare*, ajouter; advenire, 
avenir. 

nd becomes nt: subinde, souvent ; pendere, pente, &c. 

s, Z, X. 

s becomes s, c, t, z. For examples see above, pp. 60-63. 

sr becomes tr : crescere, croitre ; pascere, paitre ; cog- 
noscere, connaiire ; essere *, Hire (for this verb, see Book II. 
Chap. I, on the Auxiliary Verbs). 

st, sp, sc, as initials, become est, esp, esc: stare, ester; 
scribere, ecrire (O. Fr. escrire); sperare, espe'rer. This fact 
is only noticed here; it will be more fully treated at pp. 78- 
80, in the chapter on the Addition of Letters. 

x becomes ss : exagium*, essai ; examen, essaim ; laxare, 
laisser ; axilla, aisselle ; coxa, cuisse ; exire, issu, past part, 
of issir. 

§ 3. Gutturals ; c, ch, gh, q, g, j, h. 
C. 

The soft c becomes in French c , s, z, x ; the hard c 
becomes c, ch, g, i. For examples see above, pp. 50, 61-64. 

c between two vowels disappears, if at tHe end of a word : 
focum, feu ; joeum, jeu ; paueuxn, peu ; Aucum, Eu ; 
Saviniacum, Savigny 1 . 



1 The Celtic ak, latinised into aeum, indicated possession. 
To designate the lands of Albinus or Sabinus, the Gallo- 
Romans fabricated the names Albini-acum, Sabini-acum. This 
termination in the south became ac, in the north ay, e, or y. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. LATIN GUTTURALS AND LABIALS. 75 

cl: already treated of on p. 71. 
ct : already treated of on p. 60. 

Q. 

See just above, under the hard e. 

G. 

g becomes in French g, j, i. For examples see above, 
pp. 62, 64. 

gin becomes m : pigmentum, piment ; phlegma, flemme. 

gn becomes n : maligmim, malin ; benignum, be'nin. 

gd becomes d : smaragda, emeraude ; Magdalena, Made- 
leine ; frigidus, froid. 



J. 



See above, p. 62. 



H. 

See above, p. 66. 

This letter is often dropped at the beginning of words : 
habere, avoir ; homo, on; hora, or; hordeum, orge ; hoc- 
illud (O. Fr. oil), oui. 

§ 4. Labials : p, b, f, ph, v. 

p becomes p, b, v. For examples see above, pp. 58, 59. 

ps, pt, pn, as initials. This sound is unknown in French, 
so that the p is dropped in all these cases : ptisana, tisane ; 
pneuma, neume ; psalmus, O. Fr. saume. Where we find 



Thus Sabiniacum is in the south of France Savignac ; but in 
the north it becomes Savenay, Sevigne, or Savigny. Albim-acum 
similarly is Aubignac, Aubenay, Aubigne, Aubigny. F^inal e seems 
most common in the west of France ; final y in the centre ; final 
ay in Champagne and the east. But the distinction is not well- 
marked, and we must not lay too much stress on it. 



J6 PERMUTATION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. i. 

these sounds reproduced in full, as in psaume, psallette, &c, 
we may be sure that the words are completely modern. 

pt, in the middle of words, is changed into /, d: captivus, 
che'tif ; derupta, de'route ; rupta, route ; scriptus, ecrit ; ad- 
captare*, acheter ; male-aptus 1 J malade ; grupta * 2 , grotte. 
The words apte, captif, crypte, rupture, &c, are modern. 



B. 

b becomes b, v. For examples see above, pp. 58, 59. 

bt, bs, bj, bin lose their b when they pass into French,, 
and become d, t, s, J, m : cubitus, coude ; dubitum, doute ; 
debitum, dette ; subjectum, sujet ; submissum, soumzs. 

br becomes ur: abrotonum, aurone ; fabrica (O. Fr. 
faurge) , forge. 



See above, p. 59. 



F, Ph. 



V. 



v becomes v,f, b, g. For examples see above, pp. 58, 
59> 6 4- 



1 Aptus becomes in Old French ate, in Provencal ade. Ate or 
ade in the twelfth century bear the sense of being in good health; 
thus malade, male aptus, is one who is in bad health. 

- Crypta became crupta in the vulgar Latin of the sixth; 
century; and we find this word in a Latin text of the year 
a.d. 887 in the form of grupta, whence the French grotte. 



PAET II. 

THE TRANSPOSITION, ADDITION, AND 
SUBTRACTION OF LETTERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

OF TRANSPOSITION (OR METATHESIS). 

When the letters of a derivative are arranged in an order 
different from that which they held in the word from which 
it is derived, we say that it has suffered metathesis (fierddeais), 
that is to say, transposition ; as when the gn of the Latin 
stagnum becomes ng in the French derivative e'tang. 

SECTION I. 

TRANSPOSITION OF CONSONANTS. 

K" : e'tang, stagnum ; poing, pugnus ; teignant, tingentem. 

L : Lot, Oltis. 

R. : pour, pro ; treuil, torculus ; pauvreti, paupertatem ; 
truffe, tuber ; troubler, turbulare * ; Durance, Druentia ; 
brebis, vervecem; tremper, temperare; frontage, formati- 
cum ; trombe, turbo. 

SECTION II. 

TRANSPOSITION OF VOWELS. 

The vowel i is often drawn towards the vowel which pre- 
cedes it, whence results a necessary transposition : gloire, 
gloria ; histoire, historia ; memoire, memoria ; juin, Junius ; 
| muid, modius ; faisan, phasianus. 



78 ADDITION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. 2. 

CHAPTER II. 

OF THE ADDITION OF LETTERS. 

The letters added to the primitive word may be either 
(1) prosthetic (irpoadeo-is), that is to say, put at the beginning 
of a word ; (2) epenthetic (Z-KevOevts), or put in the body of a 
word; or (3) epithetic (emOea-is), or put at the end of a word 1 . 

SECTION I. 

ADDITION AT THE BEGINNING OF A WORD (PROSTHESIS). 

§ i. Vowels. 

Before the initial sounds sc, sm, sp, st (which are hard to 
pronounce), the French have placed an e, which renders 
the sound more easy by doubling the s: espace, spatium; 
espece, species ; esperer, sperare ; estomac, stomachum ; 
esclandre, seandalum ; esprit, spiritus ; ester, stare ; escabeau, 
scabellum ; escient, scientem ; esclave, slavns * ; escalier, 
scalarium 2 . After the sixteenth century several of these 
words undergo a farther modification : the s goes out, and 
its suppression is marked by the acute accent, which is 
placed upon the initial /: e'tat, statum; e'pice, species ; e'chelle, 
scala; ecrin, scrinium; e'tain, stannum ; etable, stabulum; 
etude, studium ; epais, spissus ; ecole, schola ; etroit, strictus ; 



1 These technical names, borrowed from the Greek gram- 
marians, are here preserved, because they are in use, and are 
convenient in point of brevity. 

2 As has often been said, the French language springs not 
from the literary Roman tongue, but from the popular or vulgar 
Latin. Now, in the fifth and sixth centuries, the vulgar Latin 
had ceased to say spatium, sperare, stare, &c, but ispatium, 
isperare, istare, as one sees by the inscriptions and diplomas 
of the Merovingian period. This i, thus prefixed by the people 
to facilitate the emission of these sounds, becomes e in French : 
ispatium, espace; istare, ester; isperare, esperer; &c. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. PROSTHESIS, EPENTHESIS. 79 

I'poux, sponsus ; epine, spina ; epz, spica ; etoile, stella ; epee, 
spatha; Ecosse, Scotia 1 . 

By a false assimilation an e has been also prefixed to a 
number of words which, in the Latin, had no s : ecorce, cor- 
ticem; escarboucle, carbuneulus, &c. 

§ 2. Consonants. 
i. h added: knit, octo; huile, oleum; haut, altus; huitre, 
ostrea; hieble, ebulum ; hache, ascia; huis 2 , ostium; hurler, 
ullare (vulgar Latin form of ululare). 

2. £■ added: grenom'lle 3 , ranuncula. 

3. / added : tante (O. Fr. ante*), amita. 

4. / added (by the junction of the article with the word) : 
Lille , illa-insula ; Her re, hedera ; luette, uvetta ; lors, hora ; 
lendemain, O. Fr. l'endemain b . 

SECTION II. 

ADDITIONS IN THE BODY OF THE WORD (EPENTHESIS). 

i . h added : Cahors, Cadurei ; envahir, invadere ; trahir, 
tradere ; trahison, traditionem. The middle ages, here 
falling in with both the etymology and the historic reason 
of the words, wrote more logically envair, trair, trai'son. 

2. m added: lambruche, labrusea. 

3. n added: langouste, locusta; lanteme, laterna; An- 
gouleme, Iculisma ; convoiter, cupitare * ; concombre, cucu- 
merem ; jongleur, joculatorem ; peinire, pietorem. 

1 We pass over technical terms, like scandale, stomacal, sto'ique, &c. 

2 For huis and its derivative huissier, see p. 53. 

3 Grenouille in Old French is renouille, a form which does not 
come from the classical ranuncula, but from the vulgar Latin 
ranucla, a word which is often met with in MSS. of the sixth 
century. On the change of cl into il (ranucla, renouille), see 
above, p. 7 1 . 4 Cp. the English aunt. 

5 Instead of saying le lendemain, le lierre, la luette, which are 
gross errors of the fifteenth century, the more correct forms Fen- 
\ demain, Pierre, Puette, were in use throughout the middle ages. 



8o. SUBTRACTION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Pt. 2. 

4. r added : fro?ide, fimda ; perdrix, perdicem ; tresor, 
thesaurus. 

5. For the addition of a b between the liquids, mr, ml, 
&c. (as chambre, camera, &c), see above, p. 72. 

SECTION III. 

ADDITION AT THE END OF A WORD (EPITHESIS). 

j added: lis, lilium; legs, legatum; tandis, tarn 6iu ; jadis, 
jam diu ; sans, sine ; certes, certe, &c. 

CHAPTER III. 

'OF THE SUBTRACTION, OR DROPPING, OF LETTERS. 

Letters withdrawn from the primitive words may be taken 
from (1) the beginning of the word (aphaeresis, d<pa[peais) ; 
or (2) from the body of the word {syncope, avyKoirrj) ; or 
(3) from the end {apocope, anoKo-nr)), 

SECTION I. 

OMISSION FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORD (APHAERESIS). 

§ i. Of Vowels. 
Boutique, apotheca ; die, ablatum ; migraine, rjfiiKpavia ; 
leur, illorum ; riz, oryza ; diamant, adamantem ; le, ille ; 
Gers, Egirius; sciaiique, isehiadicus ; Natolie, Anatolia. 

§ 2. Of Consonants. 
Tisane, ptisana ; pdmer, spasmare * ; loir, gliris ; neume, 
pneuma; or, hora; orge, hordeum; on, homo; avoir, habere. 

SECTION II. 

OMISSION FROM THE BODY OF THE WORD (SYNCOPE). 

§ i. Syncope of Vowels. 

We have seen (above, pp. 67, 68) under what law the Latin 
vowels passed into the French language: the tonic vowel 



Ch.3- Sect. 2. EPITHESIS, APHAERES1S, SYNCOPE. 8 1 

always remained, but the atonic vowels varied ; if short, they 
disappeared from either position, i.e. (i) when they stand 

i immediately before the tonic vowel, as positura, posture ; 

: and (2) when they are penultimate, as regula, regie: if 

j long, the atonic vowel always remained. 

§2. Syncope 0/ Consonants. 

In every word the consonants can occupy two positions 
! which differ with regard to the vowels: either (1) they are 

put between two vowels, as the b in tabanus, in which case 
j they are called 'medial;' or (2) they are followed by 

another consonant, as b in submissum, when they are called 

' non-medial.' 

1. Non-medial Consonants. In the case of two consonants 
together, like bm in submissum, the former usually dis- 
appears in the French derivative : sujet, subjectum ; soumis, 
submissus; deroule, derupta; noces y nuptiae; chitif, cap- 
tivus ; peser, pensare ; avoue, advocatus ; coquille, con- 
chylium \ &c. Thus too the Latin s which had survived 
in most French words up to the end of the sixteenth century 
(cp. the O.Fr. aspre, pas Ire, paste, from the Lat. asper, pastor, 
pasta*), disappeared in the seventeenth century, and its 
suppression was denoted by the introduction of a circumflex 
accent : dpre, pdtre, pdte 3 . ,..;., 

2. Medial Consonants. The dropping-out of these is an 
important element in the formation of the French language. 

(1) Dentals, d: cruel, crudelis; suer, sudare; de'nue, 
denudatus ; moelle, medulla ; obeir, obedire. 



1 The subject of the syncope of consonants has hitherto been 
but little studied, and it is not yet known what exact law it 
follows. 

2 Except in the three words mouche, musea ; louche, luscus ; 
citerne, cisterna, in which the s disappeared much earlier. 

G 



8 2 SUBTRACTION OF LETTERS. Bk. I. Ch. 3. Sect. 3. 

t : doner ; dotare ; muer, mutare ; rond, rotundus ; saluer, 
salutare. 

(2) Gutturals, c : plier, plicare ; jouer, jocare ; voyelle, 
vocalis • d/li/j delicatus ; prier, precari. 

g : titer, negare ; gfant, gigantem ; nielle, nigella ; aout, 
augustus ; maitre, magister, 

(3) Labials, b : taon, tabanus ; viorne, viburnum ; 
ayantj habentem. 

v : paon, pavonem ; peur, pavorem ; viande, vivenda 1 ; 
a'ieul, aviolus *. 

SECTION III. 

LETTERS DROPPED AT THE END OF THE WORD (APOCOPE). 

§ i. Apocope of Vowels. 
On this subject see above, p. 70. 

§ 2. Apocope 0/ Consonants. 

t : gre', gratum ; aime', amatus ; aigu, acutus ; ecu, 
scutum ; abbe', abbatem ; &c. 

n : four, furnus ; chair, carnem ; cor, cornu ; hiver, 
hibernum ; jour, diurnum : cahier, (O. Fr. quaier), quater- 
num ; aubour, alburnum. 

1: out (O. Fr. oil), ho[c] -illud ; nenni (O. Fr. nennil), 
non-illud. 

1 See above, p. 33. 






PART III. 

PROSODY. 

Prosody is that part of grammar which treats of the modi- 
fications of vowels which are caused by quantity and accent. 
Vowels can be modified in three ways, (i) In their nature : 
e.g. a may become o. The study of these modifications will 
be found under the head of the Permutation of Vowels on 
pp. 48-54. (2) In their length : they may be short, as in patte, 
or long, as in pdtre. Here we have the study of quantity. 
There is but little to be said about it, except that it is very 
vague in the French language; it is never certain except 
in such words as mur (O. Fr. meiir, Lat. maturus), which 
words are contractions ; or in such words as pdtre (O. Fr. 
pastre), in which the s has been dropped. In these two sets 
of words the vowel is certainly long. (3) In their elevation 
or accentuation. They may be tonic, as the a in ce'libat, or 
atonic, as the a in pardon. This is the study of accent. 
Now there are four kinds of accent, which must be kept 
distinct, though they are often confounded together : — Tonic, 
Grammatical, Oratorical, and Provincial. 

I. Tonic Accent. 

In the Introduction we described ' tonic accent,' or more 
simply ' accent,' as the incidence of the voice upon one of 
the syllables of a word. Thus in the word raison, the 
tonic accent lies on the last syllable, but in raisonndble it is 
on the penultimate. 

G 2 



84 PROSODY, Bk. I. 

The accented or tonic syllable is, therefore, that on 
which more stress is laid than on any of the others. In 
Greek this elevation of the voice is called rovos or npoa-cobla, 
words rendered in Latin by accenius. 

This tonic accent gives to each word its special character, 
and has been rightly called ' the soul of the word/ In French 
the tonic accent always occupies one of two places : either 
(i) it is on the last vowel, when the termination is masculine, 
as chanteur^ aimer, finir, seigneur ; or (2) on the last vowel but 
one, when the termination is feminine, as sauvdge,ve'rre, porche. 
In Latin also the accent occupies one of two places : the 
penultimate, when that syllable is long, as cantorem, amare, 
finire, seniorem; or the antepenult, when the penultimate 
syllable is short, as sylvaticus, porticus. If the reader will 
compare these French and Latin examples, he will notice 
at once that the Latin accent survives in the French; that 
is to say, the accented syllable in Latin is also the accented 
syllable in French (cantorem, chanteur ; amare, aimer ; 
finire, finir ; seniorem, seigneur. 

This continuance of the Latin accent is a matter of con- 
siderable importance, and is, we may fairly say, the key to 
the formation of the French language. Its importance has 
been explained in the Introduction, to which (pp. 32-35) 
the reader is now referred. 

II . Grammatical A ccent. 

In French grammar there are three accents — acute, grave, 
circumflex. Accent, in this sense, is a grammatical sign, 
which has three different functions in orthography. 

(1) Sometimes the accent indicates what is the proper pro- 
nunciation of certain vowels, as bonte, regie, pole. (2) Some- 
times it marks the suppression of certain letters, as pdtre. 
pastor ; qpre, asper ; dne, asinus ; which words in Old 
French were pas/re, aspre, asm. (3) And lastly it is used 






Pt. 3. A CCENT UA TION. 85 

to distinguish between words otherwise spelt alike, but of 
different significations ; as, du and du, des and des, la and la, 
tu and tit, sur and stir, &C. 1 

III. Oratorical Accent. 

The tonic accent affects syllables within words, but ora- 
torical accent (otherwise styled 'phraseological') influences 
words within sentences. Thus oratorical accent belongs 
to the domain of declamation and rhetoric, and naturally 
has had no influence on the transformation of Latin into 
French words 2 . We shall therefore have no need to 
trouble ourselves with it in this place. 

IV. Provincial Accent. 

By provincial accent we understand the intonation pecu- 
liar to each province, differing from the intonation of good 
Parisian pronunciation, which is taken as the standard. And 
this is in reality what is meant by the phrase, ' He who 
speaks French well has no accent' — that is, no provincial 
accent. The study of these characteristics of the inhabitants 
of certain districts does not belong to our subject, and is 
therefore set aside. Let us, however, say that provincial pro- 
nunciation limits itself to this — it gives a word two accents, 
and lowers the value of the principal (or proper) one by 
subjoining to it a slight half-accent on another syllable. 



1 Cp. Littre, Diet. Hist. s. v. ' Accent.' These French gram- 
matical accents which act as signs in writing differ widely from 
those of the Greek language, though borrowed from them. The 
acute, grave and circumflex accents in Greek simply denote the 
tonic syllable, and the shades of intonation on that syllable. In 
French, on the contrary, these accents have no connection with 
the tonic and etymological accent, and are purely orthographic 
symbols. 

2 See G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 8. 



BOOK II. 

INFLEXION, OR THE STUDY OF GRAMMATICAL 
FORMS. 

Book II will be entirely given up to the study of inflexions ; 
that is to say, of the modifications undergone by a noun 
when declined, by a verb when conjugated. Declension 
of substantive, article, adjective, and pronoun, and conjuga- 
tion of verbs, will naturally form the two divisions of this 
Book. 

To make the study of the different parts of our subject 
complete, we will under this division include all invariable, 
as well as inflected, words. 



PART I. 

DECLENSIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE SUBSTANTIVE... 
Let us take in order (i) case, (2) number, and (3) gender. 

SECTION I. 

CASE. 

Of the six cases of Latin declension, the nominative alone 
indicated the subject, the other five the 'government' or 
relation. 

Now if we place Latin and French side by side we shall 
see that the six cases of the mother tongue are reduced to 
one in the daughter language. How has this come about ? 
Have those six cases always existed in Latin, or has the 
French never had more than one? We must again turn to 
the history of the language; it will provide us with an 
answer. 

The tendency to simplify and reduce the number of cases 
was early felt in the popular Latin : the cases expressed 
shades of thought too delicate and subtle for the coarse 
mind of the Barbarian. And so, being unable to handle 
the learned and complicated machinery of the Latin declen- 
sions, he constructed a system of his own, simplifying its 
springs, and reducing the number of the effects at the price 
of frequently reproducing the same form. Thus the Roman 
distinguished by means of case-terminations the place where 



THE SUBSTANTIVE. 89 

one is, from the place to which one is going : ' veniunt ad 
domum,' 'sunt in domo.' But the Barbarian, unable to 
grasp these finer shades, saw no use in this distinction, 
and said, in either case alike, * sum in domum/ ' venio ad 
domum.' 

Thus, from the fifth century downwards, long before the 
first written records . of the French language, popular Latin 
reduced the number of cases to two: (1) the nominative 
to mark the subject; and (2) that case which occurred 
most frequently in conversation 1 , the accusative, to mark 
the object or relation. From that time onwards the Latin 
declension was reduced to this: — subject, muru-s; object, 
muru-m. 

The French language is the product of the slow develop- 
ment of popular Latin ; and French grammar, which was 
originally nothing but a continuation of the Latin grammar, 
inherited, and in fact possessed from its infancy, a com- 
pletely regular declension : subject, mur-s, muru-s ; object, 
mur, muru-m: and people said 'ce murs est haut;' ' j'ai 
construit un mur 2 ! 

This declension in two cases forms the exact difference 
between ancient and modern French. It disappeared in the 
fourteenth century (as we will explain later on), not without 
leaving many traces in the language, which look like so 
many insoluble exceptions, but find their explanation and 



1 The fact (which had previously been pointed out by Ray- 
nouard) was completely established by M. Paul Meyer in i860, 
in an Essay before the ' School of Chartularies,' with proofs 
drawn from the study of Latin MSS. of the Merovingian era. 

2 One can see at a glance the consequence of this distinction 
of cases ; so long as the sense of a word is given by its form (as in 
Latin) and not by its position (as in Modern French), inversions 
are possible. Consequently they are frequent in Old French. 
One could say equally well, ' le rots conduit le cheval ;' or, as in 
Latin, * le cheval conduit le rois (caballzwz conducit rex). 1 The s 
which marked the subject (row, rex), made ambiguity impossible. 



90 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. I. 

historic justification in our knowledge of the Old French 
declension. 

This takes three forms, answering to the three Latin 
declensions : — 



t. 

f Subjective rosa rose 

Objective rosa-w .... rose 
p. f Subjective rosae .... roses 
\ Objective rosa-* .... roses 



Sing, i 



„. f Subjective muru-j. . . . murs 

(. Objective muru-w . . mur 

p. f Subjective mur-/ .... mur 

\ Objective mur-w .... murs 

3- 

~. i Subjective pastor .. ..pdtre (pas f re 1 ) 
(..Objective pastor-m ..pasteur 

p. C Subjective pastor-w .. pasteur s 
\ Objective pastor-^r .. pasteur s. 

In the subjective it ran thus : ' la rose est belle f * le murs 
est haut;' *le pdtre est venu;' 2 in the objective, * j'ai vu la 
rose, le mur, le pasteur,' &c. 

On looking into these declensions one is struck with 
the facts that (1) the Latin accent is always respected; and 



1 Pdtre, in Old French pastre. Pastre and pasteur were not in 
Old French two distinct words, but only the two cases of the 
same word. 

2 In all these examples of Old French, we ought to have 
written U murs, li pastre, not le murs, le pdtre, li being the nomi- 
native singular, and le the accusative (as may be seen below, 
p. 100, in the chapter on the Article) : but as we wish to pass 
gradually from the known to the unknown, we have for the. 
moment sacrificed correctness to convenience. 



Ch. i. Sect. i. THE SUBSTANTIVE. 9 1 

(2) that (with the exception of one case) the Old French 
takes s whenever the Latin has it: in other words, the 
French declension rests on the natural laws of derivation. 

Between Latin, a synthetic language, and Modern French, 
which is analytic, there is an intermediate, or half-synthetic, 
period. This transition period is marked by the Old French 
declension, which indicates a resting-point between synthesis 
and analysis 1 . But this system was still too complicated for 
the minds of men in the thirteenth century: though the 
Barbarians had reduced the six Latin cases to two, it 
was conceived that it would be far more regular to re- 
duce the three French declensions to one. Accordingly, 
the second declension was taken as the common form, 
as it was the most generally used, and its laws were 
applied to both the others. Now the characteristic of this 
second declension was an s in the subjective case of the 
singular — 'murj/ murus; and accordingly, in violation of 
the genius of the language and of the laws of Latin deriva- 
tion, men took to saying * le pastrer,' as they were wont to 
say ' le mur^.' The laws of derivation were broken, because 
the Latin pastor has no s in the nominative ; nor has it any 
need of that letter, since it is itself distinguished from the 



1 Raynouard, who in a.d. 181 i developed the laws of French 
declension, gave them the general name of ' the rule of the j,' 
by reason of the s which so commonly marks the subject. This 
discovery is one of the greatest services ever rendered to the 
study of Old French, and to the history of the language. ' With- 
out this key/ Littre says most truly, ' everything seemed to be 
an exception or a barbarism ; with it there is brought to light 
a system, far shorter indeed than the Latin, but still neat and 
regular.' Much discussion has taken place as to the usefulness 
and exact application of this 'rule of the s' during the middle 
ages : its practical utility is doubtless restricted, and it has often 
been broken through ; but the existence of the rule (even more 
than its utility) is a fact of extreme interest, as it allows us to 
mark the stages of transition from Latin to French, and is, as it 
were, a halt in the passage from synthesis to analysis. 



92 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. i. 

accusative past6rem by the position of the tonic accent. 
This addition of an s to the nominative of all such words as 
p&stor, which has two forms in French (pas/re, pasteur), 
seemed to simplify the inflexion of nouns; but in reality 
complicated it, and has in fact destroyed the whole system 
of French declension. For hereby the French declension, 
which had previously rested on the natural laws of deriva- 
tion, came to be founded on this sufhx s, which is nothing 
but an arbitrary and artificial form. In its first period (ninth 
to twelfth century) this declension depended on etymology ; 
in its second (twelfth to fourteenth century) it rested on 
mere analogy : the former is natural, the latter artificial ; the 
former came from the ear, the latter from the eye. 

Thus then, in its first epoch, the declension was, as we 
have just seen, natural, based on etymology and the laws of 
derivation ; but for that very reason it was specially fragile, 
* since its rules were only second-hand, — in other words, it 
had relations with Latin forms and accentuation, but had 
no stability or guarantee in the proper junction and knitting 
together of its own tongue 1 / And so French declension 
was destined to perish forthwith, and the unlucky reform, 
which consisted in combining the three declensions in one 
by sacrificing the rarer and more individual forms to the 
more general ones, did not save it from ruin. Rejected 
from the speech of the populace, from the thirteenth cen- 
tury downwards, and constantly violated even by the learned, 
French declension was thoroughly ruined by the time it 
reached the fourteenth century. It disappeared, and the 
distinction between the subjective and objective cases 
perished : thenceforward one case alone was used for each 
number. And this was the objective (or accusative) case 
(falconem, faucori) ; for it was usually longer and more 

1 M.Littre. 



Ch. i. Sect. i. THE SUBSTANTIVE. 93 

consistent than the subjective (or nominative), and occurred 
more frequently in course of conversation. Thenceforth the 
subjective case (falco, O. Fr. fauc) vanished, and modern 
declension was established. 

This adoption of the objective case as the type and form 
of the Latin substantive had a curious result in the forma- 
tion of the numbers. In the older declension we had — 

SINGULAR. PLURAL. 

Subject murus murs. muri mur 

Object murum mur muros murs 

where the objective case was in the sing, mur, in the 
plur. murs. In the fourteenth century the new declension 
took, as we have said, the objective for its type, and con- 
sequently the j of the older objective case murs (muros) 
became the mark of the plural, while the absence of J 
for the objective sing, mur (murum) became the mark of 
the singular. But had the subjective case been taken as the 
type, and the objective abandoned, instead of the contrary, 
we should have had murs (murus) in the singular, and mur 
(muri) in the plural; so that the s, which now marks the 
plural in that case, would have distinguished the singular 
instead. 

From the moment that final s ceased to be the character- 
istic of the cases, and became the distinctive mark of the 
numbers, the French mediaeval system of declensions ceased 
to exist ; the fifteenth century utterly ignored it ; and when; 
in the time of Louis XI, Villon attempted to imitate in a 
ballad the language of the thirteenth century, he failed to 
observe the ' rule of s,' and his imitation consequently wants 
the distinctive mark of the middle ages. It is curious to 
see in the nineteenth century the detection of the mistakes 
committed by a writer who in the fifteenth tried to write 
a ballad in the manner of the thirteenth. 



94 DECLENSIONS. . Bk.II. Pt.i. 

Since declension in two cases was, as we have seen, the 
distinctive and fundamental characteristic of Old French, 
the loss of these cases immediately established between Old 
and Modern French a line of demarcation far more distinct 
than any which exists in Italy or Spain between the language 
of the thirteenth and that of the nineteenth centuries. 

There survived, however, some important traces of the 
Old French declension, which look to us like inexplicable 
anomalies — explicable, in truth, only by a knowledge of the 
history of the language. Before entering on the study of 
gender let us re-state the consideration of the Old French 
declensions one by one, and so discover the traces they 
have left in modern French. 

i. Second Declension. Here the subjective case is sup- 
pressed, and the objective retained (mur from murum, serf 
from servum, &c). Still, some relics of the subjective case 
are retained in the nine following words : fits, filius ; fonds, 
fundus ; lacs, laqueus ; legs, legatus ; lis, lilius ; lez, 
latus 1 ; puits, puteus; rets, retis; queux, eoquus. In Old 
French all these words had also the objective case — fil, 
filium ; fond, fundum ; lac, laqueum ; leg, legatum ; It, 
lilium; U, latum; puit, puteum; ret, retem; queu, coqmim. 
In these instances, then, the objective case has disappeared, 
while the subjective has survived 2 . 

In this way we may explain by the history of the second 
declension the formation of the plural in aux : mal, maux ; 
cheval, chevaux, &c. 



1 s, x, %, regarded as orthographic signs, are equivalents in 
Old French ; voix was written indifferently voix, vois, or n)oiz. 
A trace of this usage remains in ne%, nasus ; lez, latus ; and in 
those plurals which end in x {cailloux, feux, maux), which used 
in Old French to be written with either an s or an x. 

2 It is just the same in the case of certain proper names, 
Charles, Carolus; Louis, Lodovieus; Vervins, Verbinus; 
Orleans, Aurelianus ; &c. 



Ch. i. Sect. i. THE SUBSTANTIVE. % 

In the thirteenth century the second declension was as 
follows : — 

SINGULAR. PLURAL. 

mals malus mal mali 

mal malum mals malos. 

But the / is softened into u when it is followed by a con- 
sonant (as paume, palma; aube, alba; sauf, salvus), and so 
mals became maus. 

SINGULAR. PLURAL. 

maus malus mal mali 

mal malum maus malos. 

Thus, when the fourteenth century abolished declension by 
abandoning the subjective case, and keeping only the objec- 
tive, they had only mal (malum) in the singular, and maus 
or maux (malos) in the plural. So too chevaux, travaux, 
&c, may be traced. 

2. Third Declension. In this declension in Latin the 
accent is displaced in the oblique cases (pastor, pastorem) ; 
whence it follows, as we have seen, that the third French 
declension had a double form : the one pastre (pastor) in 
the subjective case; the other pasteur (pastorem) for the 
objective. In this declension, as in the second, the objective 
case got the mastery at the same epoch, as may be seen by 
looking at a few instances : — 



SUBJECTIVE. 


OBJECTIVE. 


abbas 


abbe 


abbatem abbe' 


falco 


fauc 


falconem faucon 


latro 


lerre 


latronem larron 


serpens 


serpe 


serpentem serpent 


infans 


enfe 


infantem enfant. 



In all these the subjective case has perished, the objective 
case has survived. 



g6 DECLENSIONS. Bk.II. Pt.i. 

There are a very few instances to the contrary, in which 
the subjective case has been retained : — 

SUBJECTIVE. OBJECTIVE. 

soror sceur sororem seror 

pictor peinire pictorem painteur 

antecessor ancetre antecessorem ancesseur 

tr&ditor Iraitre (O. Fr. trdilre) traditorem iraiteur. 
In many other words the two forms have survived side 
by side; but instead of continuing to be the two cases of 
one word, they have become two different words : as — 

cantor chantre cantorem chanteur 

senior sire (O. Fr. sinre) seniorem seigneur\ 

SECTION II. 

GENDERS. 

The French language has adopted only the masculine 
and feminine genders, rejecting the third Latin gender, the 
neuter. The student of grammar must approve of this 
suppression of the neuter, for the Latin tongue had utterly 
lost all appreciation of the reasons which had originally 
made this or that object neuter rather than masculine ; and 
furthermore Low Latin, by uniting these two genders in 
one, had prepared the way for this simplification of language, 
which was afterwards adopted in the Romance languages. 
The neuter is useless except when, as in the case of English, 
it belongs exclusively to whatsoever is neither male nor 
female. 



1 The Latin genitive left some traces in Old French. It is 
vain to quote these forms, as Modern French has rejected them 
all with the exception of kur, illorum, and cbandeleur, cande- 
larum (festa). 



Ch. r. Sect. 2. THE SUBSTANTIVE. 97 

This suppression of the neuter, which dates very far back, 
— long, indeed, before the irruptions of the Barbarians, — 
was brought about in two ways : — 

1. Neuter substantives were altered to masculines. Even 
in Plautus we find dorsus, aevus, collus, gutturem, cubitus, 
&c. : in inscriptions dating back beyond the fourth century, 
we have brachius, monumentus, collegius, fatus, metallus, 
&c. : in the Salic law, animalem, retem, membrus, vesti- 
gius, precius, folius, palatius, templus, teetus, stabulus, 
judicius, placitus, &c. It is useless to multiply proofs of 
this fact, which a rhetorician of the Empire, Curius Fortu- 
natianus, who nourished about a.d. 450, had already ob- 
served, and transmitted to posterity in these words, ' Romani 
vernacula plurima et neutra multa masculino genere potius 
enunciant, ut hunc theatrum, et hunc prodigium V 

2. Neuter substantives became feminines, the neuter 
plural in a (peeora) having been mistaken (a strange error !) 
for a singular nominative of the first declension. In texts of 
the fifth century we find such accusatives as pecoras, per- 
gamenam, vestimentas, &c. 

We may now notice certain peculiar points which will 
help us to explain such anomalies as amour, orgue, hymne, 
delices, which are real grammatical irregularities. 

All Latin masculines ending in orem became feminines 
in French : dolorem, douleur ; errorem, 4 erreur ; calorem, 
chaleur ; amorem, amour. This feminine vexed the Latin- 
ists of the sixteenth century ; and as they preferred Latin to 
French, they tried to turn all these words into masculines, 
le douleur, le chaleur, &c. This attempt failed, as it de- 
served, except in the cases of honneur and labeur, which are 
masculine, and of amour, which has both genders 2 . 



1 P. Meyer, Etude sur Vhistoire de la langue frangaise, pp. 31, 
32; Littre, p. 106. 2 Littre, p. 106. 



98 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. 1. 

Hymne was originally masculine, and the feminine use 
of it (in speaking of church hymnology) has nothing to 
justify it either in etymology or in the history of the word. 

Gens is properly feminine, but the idea it expresses (of 
men or individuals) is properly masculine ; consequently 
this word has both genders. But it may be said generally 
that these distinctions of words, sometimes masculine and 
sometimes feminine (as aulomne, gens, &c), and of words 
masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural (as amour, 
orgue, de'lices, &c.) are mere barbarisms and idle subtleties 
invented by grammarians, not a part of the historical 
growth of the language. 

SECTION III. 

NUMBERS. 

French, like Latin and Aeolian Greek *, has two numbers, 
singular and plural. Of these, the latter is distinguished 
from the former by the addition of the letter s. And how 
is this ? If we consider Modern French by itself, without 
referring back to its 'origines,' we find it impossible to 
understand why it has chosen this letter to indicate the 
plural of nouns. It certainly looks as if it were an arbitrary 
choice, and as if any other letter might have done as well ; 
and one might be .tempted to see in this choice nothing but 
an agreement among grammarians to establish the dis- 
tinction between singular and plural in this particular way; 
by making, in fact, a distinction which appeals to a French- 
man's eyes and not to his ears, as in most cases the s is 
mute. But in reality there is good reason for this s; and 
if we pass from Modern to Old French, we shall see what 



1 The Aeolian, unlike the other Greek dialects, had no 
dual. 



Ch. i. Sect. 3. THE SUBSTANTIVE. 99 

it is \ We shall there find, it will be remembered, a declen- 
sion with two cases : 

SINGULAR. PLURAL. 

murs murus mur muri 

mur murum murs muros, 

We know that in the fourteenth century the subjective 
case was suppressed, in both numbers, and the objective 
retained (mur, murum • murs, muros). Whence it came 
that (taking mur as the type of the singular, and murs of the 
plural) the letter s became the characteristic of the plural. 
Had the language followed the contrary course, and retained 
the subjective case, we should have had «r as the characteristic 
of the singular. 

Certain substantives, like vitrum, glaeies, &c, which had 
no plural in Latin, have one in French; as verres, glaces, 
&c. Others which had no singular in Latin, also have both 
numbers in French: as menace, minaciae; noce, nuptiae; 
relique, reliquiae ; ge'sier, gigeria ; arme, arma ; geste, gesta, 
&c. 

Others, again, which had both numbers in Latin, have 
only the plural in French: mceurs, mores; ancetres, ante- 
cessors ; gens, gens. As late as the seventeenth century gens 
and ancetres had a singular, as we see from a couplet of 
Malherbe : 

' Oh ! combien lors aura de veuves 
La gent qui porte le turban ' ; 

and La Fontaine has ' la gent trotte-menue.' Ancelre was 
employed as a singular throughout the middle ages, and 
even by Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Chateaubriand. The 
same is true of the word pleurs. Bossuet followed the 
seventeenth century when he wrote ' le pleur kernel.' 

1 Littre, ii. 357. 
H 2 



IOO DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. i. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ARTICLE. 

There is no article in Latin; and, though Quinctilian 
pretended that the language lost nothing thereby \ it is 
certain that this was a real deficiency, and that, in order 
to supply it, the Romans often used the demonstrative 
pronoun ille, for the sake of distinctness, where the French 
now has le, la, les. There are plenty of examples : Cicero says, 
' Annus ille quo;' ' Ille alter;' 'Ula rerum domina fortuna.' 
Apuleius has ' Quorsum ducis asinurn ilium?' Jerome 
writes, ' Vae autem homini illi per quern/ &c. 

Though not rare in classical Latin, this usage is infinitely 
more common in the popular Latin, especially after the 
reduction of the six cases to two 2 ; a change which made 
the use of an article necessary. Popular Latin appropriated 
to this use the pronoun ille: 'Dicebant ut ille teloneus 
de illo mercado ad illos necuciantes V This pronoun thus 
transformed, and also reduced to two cases, became in Old 
French as follows : — 

SINGULAR. 
MASC FEM. 

Subject ille li ilia la 

Object ilium le illam la 

PLURAL. 

Subject illi li illae les 

Object illos les illas les 

1 He says, 'Noster sermo articulos non desiderat' (De Instit. 
Orat. i. 4). Of all the Indo-Germanic languages, Greek and the 
Teutonic languages alone have an article. Latin and Sclavonic 
have none ; Sanskrit only a rudimentary one. 

2 About the fifth century. See above, p. 89. 

3 From a chartulary of the seventh century. 



I Ch. 2. THE ARTICLE. IOl 

So they said, distinguishing carefully between the two 
j cases : 

1 Ille caballus est fortis ' ' Li chevalj est fort ' 
' Ilium vidi caballum ' ' J'ai vu le cheval.' 

j And consequently, when, in due time, the subjective case 
disappeared, the masculine article became le, ilium, and les, 
j illos, and the feminine la, illam, and les, illas. Thus we 
j get to the modern article \ 

Combined with the prepositions de, a, en, the masculine 
I article in Old French gives us : — 

Singular. 
i. del (de le), which became deu 2 , and thence du, as now. 

2. al (a le), „ au, as now. 

3. enl {en le), which has disappeared. 

Plural. 

1. dels {de les), which became des. 

2. als (a les), „ aux. 

3. es (en les), which has disappeared, with the exception 

of a few traces, as in maitre-es-arts, dodeur-es-sciences, 
es-mains; S. Pierre-es-liens. 

1 The reader has doubtless noticed that the article is a 
remarkable exception to the rule of the continuance of the Latin 
accent in French. M. G. Paris explains this difficulty thus : — 
' The Latin comic writers reckon the first syllable of ille, ilia, 
ilium, as short ; and these words may be regarded simply as 
enclitics, as is shewn by the compound ellum = en ilium. Had 
the accent been marked, the first syllable would never have been 
shortened or suppressed in composition. Consequently it is not 
wonderful that, by a solitary exception, the French language has 
retained only the latter syllable of this word; il-le = /^; il-la = /#; 
il-li = lui ; il-los = /«.' 

2 For this softening of the final / into u, see above, p. 53. 



102 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II.Pt. i. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE ADJECTIVE. 

SECTION I. 

QUALIFYING ADJECTIVES. 

§ i. Case and Number , 

Adjectives in Old French followed the same rules of declen- 
sion as substantives, and had at first two distinct cases : — 

Singular. Plural. 

Subjective bon-us = bons boni = bon. 

Objective bonum = bon bonos = bons. 

They also followed the same course in the fourteenth 
century, abandoning the subjective case. We need not 
therefore reproduce the rules given above (pp. 92-95), which 
the student may apply for himself to the adjective. 

§ 2. Genders. 

We have laid it down as a general principle, that at 
the outset French grammar is nothing but a continuation 
of Latin grammar; consequently French adjectives follow 
the Latin ones in every way. Those adjectives which in 
Latin had two different terminations for the masculine and 
the feminine (as bonus, bona) used also to have two in 
French; and those which had only one termination for 
these genders in Latin (as grandis) had but one in French 
also. Thus in the thirteenth century men said ' une grand 
femme, une ame mortel, &c. The fourteenth century, not 
understanding the reason of this distinction, supposed it to 
be a mere irregularity, and accordingly, in defiance of 



Ch. 3. Sect. 1. QUALIFYING ADJECTIVES. 103 

etymology, reduced this second class of adjectives to the 
form of the first class, and wrote grande, cruelle, mor telle, &c, 
to correspond to bonne, &c. A trace of this older form 
remains in the expressions grand: mere, grand'route, grand' - 
/aim, grand'garde, grand'kdte, grand'chere, &c. — phrases 
which are relics of the older language. Vaugelas and the 
seventeenth-century grammarians, ignorant of the historic 
ground for this usage, decreed with their usual pedantry 
and dulness, that this form came from the euphonious 
suppression of the e, and that the omission must be noted 
by an apostrophe. 

§ 3. Adjectives used as Substantives. 

Certain words, now substantives in French, but springing 
from Latin adjectives, domestique, domesticus ; sanglier, 
singularis ; bouclier, buceularium ;■ grenade, granatum ; 
linge, lineus ; coursier, eursorius, &c, were adjectives in Old 
French, following their Latin origin. In Old French the 
phrase ran thus : — 

Un serviteur domestique, i.e. a man attached to the service 
of the house (domus). In Old French (with the usual regu- 
larity of formation) it was written domesche, so as not to 
neglect the Latin accent (dom6sticus). 

Un pore sanglier, porous singularis, a wild pig, which is 
of solitary habits. 

Un ecu bouclier, scutum buceularium, literally an arched 
or bowed shield (or buckler). 

Une pomme grenade, pomum grenatum, i. e. a fruit filled 
with pips or seeds. 

Une v element linge, vestimentum lineum, i. e. a linen 
robe \ 



1 For the change from lineus to linge, i.e. of -eus to -ge, see 
p. 66. 



104 DECLENSIONS. Bk.II.Pt. I. 

Un cheval coursier, i.e. a horse kept for racing only, as 
opposed to carriage-horses, &c. 

In these expressions the epithet in course of time ejected 
the substantive, and took its place. Then people began 
to say, ' un do?nestique,' ' un sanglier,' &c, just as one now 
speaks of ' un ?nort,' meaning ' un homme mort,' ' un mortel] 
for ' un etre mortel/ &c. 

§ 4. Degrees of Comparison. 

In this, as in all other parts of French declension, par- 
ticles have taken the place of the inflections -or, -trims, 
which mark in the Latin the degrees of comparison. Here, 
as elsewhere, we may note the analytic tendencies of the 
Romance tongues. 

I. The Comparative is formed by the addition of the 
adverbs plus, moms, aussi, to the positive, in both Old and 
Modern French. 

There is one peculiarity of the Old French which must be 
noted : beside the form plus . . . que, it possessed, like the 
Italian, the form plus . . . de — ' il est plus grand de moi.' 
It would do equally well to say, ' il est plus grand de moi/ 
or 'il est plus grand que moi;' just as, in Italian, we have 
* piu grande del mio libro.' 

Some French adjectives have kept the Latin synthetic 
form ; as meilleur, meliorem. As the accent is displaced in 
the objective case (m61ior, meliorem), there has arisen (as 
we have seen) a declension with two cases, which are re- 
solved either into a single case, or into the retention of the 
two cases with different significations. The five adjectives don, 
mal, grand, petit, moult, have retained the old comparatives. 

1. Bon : O. Fr. mieldre, melior; meilleur, meliorem. 

2. Mal: pire, pejor; O. Fr. pejeur, pejorem. 

3. Grand: maire,m&jov; majeur, majorem. 

4. Petit: moindre, minor; mineur, minorem. 



NOUNS OF NUMBER. 105 

5. Mouli, multus ; plusieurs, pluriores. 

The forms derived from the neuter are moins, minus ; pis, 
pejus; plus, plus; mieux, melius (O. Fr. miels). 

We may add senior to this list ; senior has given us the 
0. Fr. sinre 1 , and seniorem gives us seigneur. 

II. The Superlative is formed by adding le plus, or ires, 
to the positive. But in Old French ' moult (multum) beau ' 
was as correct as Ires-beau. 

Some Latin superlatives lingered on into Old French. In 
the twelfth century men said, saint-isme, sanctissimus ; alt- 
isme, altissimus. These vanished in the fourteenth century. 
The words ending in issime 2 , &c, which are still found in 
French, are technical terms, not older than the sixteenth 
century : like all words which do not come from the popular 
and spontaneous period of the language, they are very ill- 
formed, and break the law of accent : ge'ne'ralissime, re've'ren- 
dissime, illuslrissime, &c. 

SECTION II. 

NOUNS OF NUMBER. 

§ i. Cardinals. 

Unus and duo, which are declined in Latin, passed 
through the same changes in Old French as did substantives 



1 This word sinre has passed into sire, just as prim (Lat. pre- 
hensus) has become pris. 

2 Six centuries before the birth of the French language, the 
superlative had already been contracted, in common Latin, to 
ismus from issimus, showing the growing energy and influ- 
ence of the Latin accent. The ' Graffiti ' of Pompeii and the 
inscriptions of the earlier Empire give us carismo, dulcisma, 
felicismus, splendidismus, pientismus, vieesma, &c, for 
carissimo, dulcissima, felicissima, splendidissimus, pien- 
tissimus, vicessima, &c. 



106 DECLENSIONS. Bk II. Pt. i. 

and adjectives of quality. They had two cases down to the 
end of the thirteenth century. 

Subject wis unus dui duo 

Object un unum deux duos. 

The phrase then ran thus: — •' Uns chevab et dui bceufr 
moururent ' (unus caballus et duo boves) : and again, ' il tua 
un cheval el deux bceufr ' (unum caballum et duos boves) . 

In the fourteenth century the subjective case was lost, and 
here, as elsewhere, the objective remained in force. 

There is nothing in particular to be said about the num- 
bers /rot's, tres ; qualre, quatuor ; cinq, quinque ; six, sex ; 
sept, septem; huit, octo (O. Fr. oit 1 ) ; neuf, novem; dix, 
decern. 

In the words onze, undeeim; douze, duodecim; treize, 
tredecim ; quatorze, quatuordecim ; quinze, quindecim ; 
seize, sedecim, the position of the tonic accent has brought 
about the disappearance of the word decern, which gave 
their real force to the words undeeim, duodecim, &c. 2 

The words which serve to mark the decades, — vingt, 
vigmti ; trente, triginta ; quarante, quadraginta ; cinquante, 
quinquaginta ; soixante, sexaginta ; septante, septuaginta ; 
octante, octoginta ; nonante, nonaginta, — in which the Latin 
g has disappeared, were originally ve'int, tre'ante, quareante, 
&c, whence came the modern contracted form vingt, trente, 
quarante, &c. 

Above one hundred, to express the even decades (120, 
140, 160, &c), Old French used multiples of twenty, and 
wrote six-vingt (120), sept-vingt (140), &c. — meaning six 
times, seven times,. &c. twenty; just as to this day 'eighty' 
is expressed by quatre-vingt, (4 x 20). Traces of this ancient 



1 Octo =huit; for the change of ct into it, see above, p. 50. 

2 See G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 61. 



Ch. 3. Sect. 2. NOUNS OF NUMBER. 107 

usage remain even in our day, as in the hospital ' des Quinze- 
Vingts' (15 x 20 = 300), which was founded to support 300 
blind persons ; so also Bossuet and Voltaire wrote ' il y a 
six-vingts ans.' 

The Latin ambo ( = two together) produced in Old French 
the adjective ambe ; and the phrases ran, ' ambes mains,' 
' ambes parts/ instead of ' les deux mains/ ' les deux parts :' 
and the word still survives at the gaming-table, 'j'ai gagne* 
un ambe a la loterie;' that is to say, 'I have won a pair,' 
i. e. on two figures. 



§ 2. Ordinals. 

With the exception of premier, priinarius ; second, secun- 
dus, which come straight from the Latin, all the French ordi- 
nals are formed by the addition of the suffix -ieme, -esimus, 
to the corresponding cardinals : deux-ieme, trois-ie7??e, &c. 

But the system adopted in Old French for the first ten 
ordinals differed from that now in use. They were drawn 
straight from the Latin, instead of being formed from the 
French cardinals : thus it had tiers, tertius, instead of trois- 
ieme ; quint, quintus, instead of cinquihne. These ten ordi- 
nals, prime, primus ; second, seeundus ; tiers, tertius ; quart, 
quartus ; quint, quintus ; sixte, sextus ; setme, s6ptimus ; 
oitave, octavus; none, nonus; disme or dime, d6cimus, have 
had interesting fortunes of their own in the history of the 
French tongue : — 

Prime, primus. This word, which has been supplanted 
by its diminutive premier, primarius, survives still in the 
phrases ' prime-abord,' ' prime-szut,' ' parer en prime,' &c. 

Second, seeundus, has not been suppressed by deuxieme, 
but has a concurrent existence. 

Tiers, tertius, remains in * tiers-6tat,' ' /z'<?r«?-parti/ and 
(in the feminine) in ' /z<?ra?-personne/ ' parer en tierce.' 



I08 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. PL K 

Quart, quartus, remains in ' fibvre-quarte.' So late as the 
seventeenth century, La Fontaine wrote 

'Un quart voleur survint,' 

where quart represents the modern quatrieme. 

Quint, quintus. ' Charles- Quint' for 'Charles le cinquieme ;' 
* la quinte musicale ;' and the word quintessence (quinta es- 
sentia) formerly written 'quinte-essence,' is a term of alchemy, 
signifying the highest degree of essence, or of distillation. 

Sixt, sextus. ' La sixte musicale/ &c. 

Setme, septimus, has disappeared altogether, giving place 
to septieme. So too oitave, oetavus, is lost, and huitieme fills 
its place. The word octave is modern and Italian. 

None, nonus. In the middle ages the ordinals marked 
the hours : ' il est prime,' ' il est tierce,' ' il est dime] for one, 
three, ten, o'clock. Traces of this way of reckoning survive 
in the Breviary, in which there are different prayers marked 
off to be recited at prime or at none, i. e. at the first or ninth 
hour of the day. 

Dime, decimus. 'Le dime jour/ 'la dime heure/ were 
phrases used in the twelfth century for ' le dixieme jour/ &c. 
So also ' la dime des recoltes/ for ' la dixieme (partie) des 
recoltes/ 



,Ch. 4. Sect. 1. 



PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 



IO9 



CHAPTER IV. 

PRONOUNS. 

Before beginning a detailed examination of the six classes 
of pronouns (i. e. the Personal, Possessive, Demonstrative, 
Relative, Interrogative, and Indefinite), it should be noticed 
that here also, as before, the Old French had a declension 
in two cases, distinguishing subject from object, down to 
the close of the thirteenth century, and also that, here as 
elsewhere, the objective case has alone survived. 

SECTION I. 

PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 

The Latin personal pronouns gave to Old French the 
following: forms : — 



CASE. 


1st Pers. 


2nd Pers. 


3rd Pers. 


Sing. 












Subjective . 


Ego je 


tu tu 


ille 


il 


ilia elle. 


Obj. direct . 


Me me 


te te 


ilium le 


illam la. 


Obj. indirect 


Mi moi 1 


tibi tot 


illi 


lui. 




Plur. 












Subjective . 


!Nos nous 


vos -vous 


illi 


tls. 




Obj. direct . 


!N"os nous 


VOS 'VOUS 


illos 


its 2 


illas elks. 



1 Moi, mi ; toi, tibi ; soi, sibi, were mi, ti, si in the eleventh 
century. To this form the suffix en was attached, and the 
possessive mi-en, ti-en, si-en formed. Unlike Modern French, 
the possessive pronouns in Old French were followed by the 
object possessed : thus they said ' le mien frere,' ' la mienne 
terre,' ' un tien vassal,' &c. This rule died out in the fourteenth 
century ; but some relics of it remain in the following expres- 
sions : ' un mien cousin,' t le tien propre,' ' une sienne tante,' &c. 

2 Illos is also the parent of eux, which was els in the thirteenth 
century, and earlier still was Us. 



110 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. i. 

Down to the end of the thirteenth century the declension 
in two cases was carefully followed : je, ego ; tu, tu ; il, ille, 
expressed the subject only; me, me; te, te; le, ilium, the 
direct object ; moi, mini, mi ; toi, tibi ; lui, illi, the indirect 
object. Modern French, by a strange mistake, says ' moi 
qui lis,' 'toi qui chantes/ ' lui qui vient,' using the object 
for the subject; but Old French said, correctly, f je qui lis,' 
ego qui lego ; ' tu qui chantes/ tu qui cantas ; ' il qui 
vient,' ille qui venit, &c. It was not till the beginning 
of the fourteenth century that the distinction between sub- 
ject and object began to grow dim, and confusion arose: 
now we have no longer any forms peculiar to the subject, 
since in certain cases we express it by je, lu, il, in others, 
by moi, toi, lui. There is a fragment of the ancient use in 
the commercial phrase, ' Je, soussigne, declare,' &c. 

Though the formation of the personal pronouns offers no 
peculiar difficulties, we will say a few words about their 
origin and development. 

i. Je and ego, which seem so far apart, are really one 
and the same word. Je is jo in MSS. of the thirteenth cen- 
tury 1 . In the tenth century it is io, and in the famous oaths 
of a.d. 842, we find the form eo ; as 'eo salvarai cest meon 
fradre Karlo/ ego salvabo eccistum meum fratrem Karolum. 
Here ego has lost its g and become eo (just as ligo becomes 
lie; nego, nie ; nigella, nielle ; gigantem, ge'ant, &c). There 
are numerous examples of the change of eo into io' 2 : io be- 
comes jo, as Divionem becomes Dijon, gobionem, gou/on 3 . 

2. En. The Latin inde obtained, in common Latin, the 
sense of ex illo, ab illo ; as in Plautus, Amphytr. i. 1, we have 
' Cadus erat vim ; inde implevi Cirneam.' 

In Low Latin this use of inde became very common, and 



1 In Villehardouin, for example. - See above, p. 66. 

3 See above, p. 65. 



Ch. 4. Sect. 2. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS. Ill 

examples are plentiful in MSS. of the Merovingian period : 
' Si potis inde manducare/ = ' si tu peux en manger/ occurs 
in a formula of the seventh century : ' Ut mater nostra 
ecclesia Viennensis inde nostra haeres fiat' (in a diploma 
of a.d. 543), &c. Inde then became int in very early French 
(as is found in the oath of a.d. 842) : in the tenth century 
it is ent 1 , in the twelfth en. 

3. Y was in Old French i, originally iv 2 , which is simply 

the Latin ibi, a word often used in common Latin for illi, 

illis : ' Dono ibi terram ; ' ' tradimus ibi terram ' (in a 

I chartulary of a.d. 883). The change of b into v (iv from 

i ibi) is no difficulty ; it occurs in couver from cubare, livre 

from libra or Wove, f eve from faba, &c. 

SECTION II. 

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS. 

In the Old French declension these were as follows : — 
Singular. 
Subjective meus, mis ; mea, ma. 
Objective meum, mon ; meam, ma. 

Plural. 
Subjective mei, mi ; meae, me. 
Objective meos, mes ; meas, mes 3 . 
In the fourteenth century this declension faded out (for 
reasons explained elsewhere), and the subjects mis, meus; 

1 This form ent is retained in the word sowvent, derived from 
the Latin subinde. 

2 In the oaths of a.d. 842, 'in nulla adjudha contra Lodhuwig 
nun li iv er ;' that is to say in the Latin of the day, ' in nullam 
adjutam contra Ludovicum non illi ibi ero.' 

3 The same formula holds good for ton, ta, tes, and for son, 
sa, ses. Leur, which comes from illorum, was indeclinable, and 
rightly so : in Old French men said ' leur terres,' illorum terrae, 
in accordance with the laws of etymology. The form leurs is 

I quite modern and illogical. 



1 1 2 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. i . 

mi, mei ; me, meae, disappeared, leaving only the objectives 
mon, meum; ma, meam; mes, meos. 

Alongside of this necessary and regular change a violent 
disturbance took place in the fourteenth century. Old 
French, imitating the Latin, had a distinct pronoun for each 
gender ; mon, meum, was masculine only ; ma, meam, 
feminine only : before such substantives as began with a 
vowel, ma became m, just as la became /' ; and nlespe'rance 
stood for ma espe'rance, like Vespe'rance for la esperance. 
Ta and sa likewise became f and s' : t'amie and fame, for 
la amie and ta dme. This distinction, which was clear, 
convenient, etymologically just, and founded on a proper 
acquaintance with the language, disappeared at the end of 
the fourteenth century. In the next century men had ceased 
to say m'dme, f esperance, famie, and had begun to say, 
as now, mon dme, ton esperance, ton amie, attaching, by 
a shameful blunder, the ma.sculine pronoun mon, meum, 
to a feminine noun. This solecism has survived to this 
day, and the construction of Old French has fallen into 
oblivion 1 . So changes come ; and now our ears would be 
as much astonished to hear the expression m'esperance, as 
those of a man of the twelfth century would be to hear us 
say mon espe'rance. And we may add that he would have 
the logic of grammar on his side, while we have on ours 
nothing but the brutal sanction of custom. The more you 
ascend towards antiquity, the more exact and sure does the 
logic of grammar shew itself to be : in saying this, however, 
I do not mean to deny that a tongue which necessarily, as 
it goes, loses on the side of exactitude, can more than make 
up for its losses by other qualities. Nor do I mean to say 

1 It has however survived in the expression n? amour : ' Allez, 
tri 'amour, et dites a votre notaire qu'il expedie ce que vous savez ' 
(Moliere, Malade Imaginaire, iii. 2). So also the term of endear- 
ment m'amie. 



Ch. 4. Sect. 3. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS. 1 13 

that I protest against the actual usage of the language, or 
that I am an inexorable grammarian, who want all solecisms 
destroyed, and the old exactitude and regularity restored 
in their place 1 . 

SECTION III. 

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS. 

The French demonstrative pronouns are three in number, 
cet, celui, and ce, which are combined with the two adverbs 
ci and la. 

1. Ce. In the thirteenth century go; in the eleventh igo; 
that is to say, ecce-hoc. 

2. Cet. In Old French cest; farther back cist; in the twelfth 
century icist; that is to say, ecciste, = ecce-iste. 

3. Celui. In Old French celui is the objective case of 
eel or cil, which, farther back, was icil; that is to say, 
eccille, = ecee-ille. This is all that need be said as to their 
etymology 2 . 

As to their meaning, cist or cest or cet answered to the 
Latin hie, and indicated the nearer object: cil, eel, or celui 
answered to ille, and indicated the more distant object. 
Thus, in a fable of La Fontaine (iii. 8), the lines 

1 Vivaient le cygne et l'oison, 
Celui-la destine pour les regards du maitre, 
Celui-ci pour son gout,' 

would have run thus in the thirteenth century : 

'Vivaient le cygne et l'oison, 
Icil (or cil) destine pour les regards du maitre, 
Icest (or cest) pour son gout.' 

Finally, we may remark that the expressions celui-ci, 

1 Littre, Histoire de la langue franqaise, ii. 415. 

2 Ceux (O. Fr. keux) represents eccillos, just as eux (above, 
p. 109) represents illos. 



1 14 DECLENSIONS. fik. II. Pt. i. 

celui-la, which replaced icist, icil, cannot be traced back 
beyond the fifteenth century 1 . 



SECTION IV. 

RELATIVE PRONOUNS. 

The relative pronouns, under which head the interrogative 
pronouns are included, are five in number: qui, que, quoi, 
dont, quel, with their compounds lequel, laquelle, &c. 

i. Qui, que, quoi, come respectively from the Latin qui, 
quam, quid. 

2. Dont comes from the Latin de-unde : unde became ont 
in Old French ; so ' le chemin par ont ( = ou) Ton va.' Unde 
joined to the preposition de became dont, whose literal 
meaning is d'ou, ' whence,' as in ' II me demanda dont je 
venais.' Dont was still used in this sense up to the end 
of the eighteenth century : thus — 

' Le mont Aventin 
Dont il l'aurait vu faire une horrible descente.' 

(Corneille, Nic. v. 2.) 
* Rentre dans le neant dont je t'ai fait sortir.' 

(Racine, Bajaz. ii. 1.) 
' Ma vie est dans les camps dont vous m'avez tire.' 

(Voltaire, Fanat. ii. 1.) 



1 Ice lie still remains in legal documents : ' De ma cause e£ des [ 
faits renfermes en icelle'' (Racine, Plaideurs). 

The same is true of cettui (ce), which is now only used in 
Marotic poetry (i. e. poetry written in imitation of Marot) : 
' Cettui Richard etait juge dans Pise' (La Fontaine) ; ' Cettui pays 
n'est pays de Cocagne' (Voltaire). Cettui is the objective case 
of the pronoun whose nominative is cet {cest or cist), just as celui 
is the objective case of cil. 



Ch. 4 . Sect. 5. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 1 15 

SECTION V. 

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 

The following are the chief indefinite pronouns. 

1. Aucun. This word, written alcun in the thirteenth 
century, and alqun in the twelfth, is compounded of alques 
and un, just as chaciin is from chaque un, and quelquun from 
quelque un. In Old French aliquis became alque : aliqui ve- 
nerunt, alque vinrent. Alque then answers to quelque, and 
alqun (alqu'un) to quelquun. The history and etymology 
of aucun shew that the word must be essentially affirmative 
in sense : ' Avez-vous entendu aucun discours qui vous 
fit croire?' 'Allez au bord de la mer attendre les vaisseaux, 
et si vous en voyez aucuns, revenez me le dire ; ' ' Phedre £tait 
si succinct qu'aucuns Ten ont blame* 1 .' Aucun becomes 
negative when accompanied by ne : ' J'en attendais trois, 
aucun ne vint.'. But it must not be forgotten that aucun is 
in itself and properly affirmative, and answers to quelquun, 
' some one.' 

2. Autre, in Old French altre, from the Latin alter. We have 
seen (above p. 113) that celui was the complement of ci'l, 
cettui of cet : so also autrui was the complement of autre, 
answering exactly to Modern French de T autre; but after the 
rule of the Old French it had no article ; people said le cheval 
autrui, or rather l' autrui cheval, alterius equus, for 'le 
cheval d'un autre.' 

3. Chaque. The successive forms of this word are, in 
the thirteenth century chasque, and earlier chesque, which is 
in fact the Latin quisque, quesque, chesque. By the addition 
of the word un, we get the compound chasqu'un, which as 

1 La Fontaine, Fables, vi. 1. 
1 2 



Il6 DECLENSIONS. Bk. II. Pt. i. 

early as the fourteenth century was written chacun, and 
represents the Latin quisque-unus. 

4. Mainf, which means 'numerous/ comes .from the 
German manck 1 , with the same sense. 

5. Meme. The history of this word is a very curious 
example of the contraction undergone by Latin in its pas- 
sage into French. Mfane in the sixteenth century was 
written mes??ie, in the thirteenth meesme and mei'sme, and 
originally medisme. Now medisme is from the common Latin 
metipsimus, which is used by Petronius, and is a contraction 
of the superlative metipsissimus, which is found in classical 
Latin under the form of ipsissimusmet, meaning ' alto- 
gether the same/ Under the head of superlatives (p. 105), 
we have seen how the suffix issimus became ismus in 
common Latin, and provided the Old French with the 
superlative termination isme. 

6. Nul, from the Latin nullus, had for its accusative 
nullui, like eel, cet, autre, with their objectives celui, cettui, 
autrui. 

7. On, in the twelfth century om, earlier, horn, is simply 
homo, and means properly ' a man.' ' On lui amene son 
destrier/ i. e. 'A man brings him his war-horse.' 

At first the two senses {homme and on) were not dis- 
tinguished, and om stood for both. In the sense of homo 
the phrase ran, ' li om que je vis hier est mort'; and in the 
sense of dicitur, 'li om dit que nous devons tous mourir.' 
In Modern French the first example would run, 'I'homme 
que je vis/ &c. ; the second would be ' Von dit,' &c. 

Thus, as we see, on was originally a substantive ; whence 
it follows that there is nothing remarkable in its taking the 
article, as in Von. 

1 The old forms of this word are the Gothic manags, and the 
Old High German manac. 



Ch. 4. Sect. 5. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS. 1 i 7 

8. Plusieurs, side by side with which the form plurieurs 
existed, comes from the Latin pluriores. 

9. Quant. The Latin quantus, a, gave the Old French 
pronoun quant, e. The feminine form has fallen out of 
Modern French, except in the phrase, ' toutes et quantes 
fois.' 

10. Quelque, from qualisquam. 

1 1 . Quiconque, from quieumque. 

12. Quelconque, from qualiscumque. 

In the middle ages the expression quelque . . . que was un- 
known, and instead of it quel . , . que was used (with better 
reason): 'A quelle heure que je vienne, je ne puis vous 
rencontrer/ which would now be ' a quelque heure que je 
vienne/ &c. The older phrase is logical, the modern a 
barbarous pleonasm. 

13. Tel comes from talis. 

14. Tout, O. Fr. tot, from totus. 

15. Un. In classical Latin the noun of number turns was 
used pleonastically to express ' a certain' ; so Plautus says, 
'Una aderit mulier lepida'; 'Unurn vidi mortuum afferri' ; 
and, ' Forte unam adspicio adolescentulam.' In all these 
cases unus bears the sense of quidam ; and this is also the 
proper sense of the French un. 

16. 17. For per sonne and ri'en, see below, p. 162. 



PAET II. 

CONJUGATION OF VERBS. 

PKELIMINARY. 

' Conjugation has perhaps been handled more freely by 
the Romance languages than any other part of grammar ; 
they have remodelled it most completely. Voices have been 
lost, moods and tenses have disappeared, and others, which 
the mother tongue would not have recognised, have been 
created in their room ; the conjugations have been thrown 
together and classified again upon new principles ; and, 
in fact, the old fabric has been completely decomposed and 
a new structure raised out of its dtbris^? 

The changes of the Latin conjugation, as to voice, mood, 
tense, and person, will be studied in detail in subsequent 
chapters : at present we will only glance summarily at all 
these transformations. 

I. Voice. To say nothing of the creation of auxiliary 
verbs, the most serious change has been the loss of the 
passive voice. The Latin passive has been suppressed, and 
in its room we have a combination of the verb $tre with the 
past participle. We find that this transformation had already 
taken place in common Latin ; MSS. of the sixth century 
are full of expressions like the following : — ' Ut ibi luminaria 
debeant esse procurata? (for procurari) ; ' Hoc volo esse 

1 G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 63. 



Bk. II. Pt. 2 . CON J VGA TION. 1 1 9 

donatuvi (for donari) ; ' Quod ei nostra largitate est con- 
cessum' (for conceditur). These examples are taken at 
random from Merovingian chartularies and diplomas. 

Deponent verbs, as they passed into French, assumed an 
active form ; or, to speak more correctly, had already lost 
the deponent form in common Latin, and indeed even in 
the Latin comic writers, who, as is well known, used many 
of the forms current in the common Latin. In Plautus 
we find, for example, arbitrare, nioderare, munerare, par- 
tire, venerare, &c, in place of arbitrari, moderari, mu- 
nerari, partiri, venerari, &c. And in the Atellan frag- 
ments we have complectite, frustrarent, irascere ( = irasci), 
mirabis, ominas, &c. 

This is the reason why we get the forms suivent, naissent, 
&c, which come from sequunt, nascunt, &c, and not 
suivont, naissont, which would have been the natural deriva- 
tives of sequuntur, naseuntur ; see above, p. 33. 

II. Moods. The supines and gerunds are gone, and 
a new mood, the conditional, has been created. 

III. Tenses. In these there have been two modifications : 

(1) The past tenses cease to be expressed by terminations 
(as am-avi, am-averam), and are made up of the auxiliary 
avoir and the past participle (fai aime\ habeo amatum) \ 

(2) The future is also formed by the help of the auxiliary 
avoir. 

The French future does not come from the correspond- 
ing Latin tense (am-abo), but is formed by the suffixes -ai, 
-as, -a, &c, attached to the infinitive of the verb: aimer -ai, 
aimer-as, aimer-a, &c. 

The Latins often expressed the desire of doing some- 
thing in the future by habeo joined with the infinitive of the 



1 Except in the cases of the imperfect and perfect indicative, 
aimais, aniabam ; aimai, amavi. 



120 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. 

verb. Even in Cicero we have ' habeo etiam dicere' ; ' ad 
familiares habeo polliceri' ; ' habeo convenire' ; ' habeo ad te 
scribere.' St. Augustine writes, 'venire habet' ( = he will 
come). This form of the future ran side by side with the 
ordinary form in the writers of the Empire, and ended by 
supplanting it. From the sixth century downwards the 
forms ' partire habeo,' ' amare habeo,' ' venire habet in 
silvam,' became the more common, while the regular futures, 
amabo, partiar, veniet, seem almost forgotten. The Ro- 
mance (or neo-Latin) languages, as they detached them- 
selves from the mother-tongue, carried with them this new 
future ; and retaining the inverted order of the words, 
amare habeo became at last aimer-at 1 . At first the two 
elements were separable, and in certain neo-Latin languages, 
as the Provencal, their combination was not necessary ; and 
so in Provencal je vous dirai is either ' vos dir-ai' or ' dir 
vos ai! But in French the two elements were early con- 
nected together, then became inseparable, and before long 
could not be distinguished. 

Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, a scholar of the last century, 
was the first to notice and remark on this formation of the 
future ; and his discovery was confirmed by the later labours 
of Raynouard and Diez. 

The French conjugations are enriched by the conditional, 
a mood not known to the Latins. While the Latin con- 
foundsf aimasse and f aimer ais under the one form amarem, 
the French separates these two senses and gives each its 
proper form. But what has been the process by which this 
has been arrived at ? The conditional indicates the future 
looked at from the point of view of the past, just as the 

1 In Italian the Latin habeo becoming ho, the future 
cantaro habeo became canter-o ; in Spanish habeo = be, and 
the future is cantar-e ; in Portuguese habeo =hey, and the 
future becomes canter-ey. 



F^t. 2. PRELIMINARY. 121 

future tense indicates a future looked at from the present. 
I To express this shade of meaning the French language has 
j created the conditional, under the form of an infinitive 
! {aimer), which indicates the future, and a termination which 
1 indicates the past x ; and hence aimer-ais, aimer-ais, aimer- 
ait, &c. 

In one word, the conditional has been built on the lines 
of the future ; but the latter has the present for its material 
{aimer-ai, &c), the former has the imperfect {aimer-ais, &c). 
IV. Persons. Both in French and in Latin the letter s 
is characteristic of the 2nd person singular, as amas, aimes; 
amabas, aimais, &c. The 1 st person singular never had an j 
in Latin — amo, credo, video, teneo ; consequently, it became 
in Old French faime, je croi, je voi, je tien. But in the 
fourteenth century came in the senseless habit (senseless 
because not based on etymology) of adding s to the 1st 
person singular, and of saying je vien-s, je tien-s, je voi-s. 
In the eighteenth century Corneille, Moliere, La Fontaine, 
and Racine wrote the correct form/*? croi,je voi,je tien; and 
Voltaire has 

' La mort a respecte ces jours que je te dot* 

(Alzire, ii. 2.) 

But these forms, whose historical origin was forgotten, ap- 
peared to be nothing but poetical licences. 

The letter / is the characteristic of the 3rd person sin- 
gular : ama-t, vide-t, legi-t, audi-t, and survived in Old 
French il aime-t, il voi-t, il li-t, il ou'i-t, &c. This etymo- 
logical / disappeared from the first conjugation, but was 
retained in the others, it li-t, il voi-t, &c. It is a real 
grammatical mistake and misfortune that the language has 
thus come to neglect the primordial characteristics of the 

1 -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient, represent the Latin -abam, 
-abas, -abat, &c. 



I 22 CON JUG A TION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

persons,— symbols handed down to us by tradition from 
the highest antiquity. How clearly does the grammar of 
the old tongue shew its regularity when compared with the 
irregularities which disfigure modern grammar x ! 

V. Now that we have noted the great differences which 
separate French from Latin conjugation, we cannot easily 
begin the study of verbal inflexions in French without say- 
ing a few words as to the part played by the Latin accent 
on French conjugation. 

As regards their tonic accent, all Latin verbs may be 
divided into two great classes, strong and weak, according 
as the accent rests on the root (creseere) or on the termina- 
tion (amare) : thus, creseere, dicitis, tenui in Latin (croitre, 
dites, tins, in French) are strong verbs, accented on their 
root ; but dormire, deb6tis, amavi (dormis, devez, aimai, in 
French) are weak, with the accent on their termination. 

This division into weak and strong verbs, or rather into: 
weak and strong forms, for properly speaking there are no 1 
completely strong verbs (i. e. verbs which accentuate the 
root throughout in all tenses and persons), has thrown a 
strong light on the study of French conjugation, as wet 
shall see in the next chapter. 

The true natural classification of French verbs should: 
consist in their being divided into strong and weak; that 
is to say, according to their form' 1 ; but rather than run 
any risk of confusing the student, we will adopt the gram- 
marians' artificial classification of verbs according to their 
functions, and will divide them into Auxiliary, Active, Passive, 
Impersonal, &c. 



1 Littre, Histoire de la langue franqaise, i. 17. 

2 But even this would not be a perfect division, seeing there 
are no verbs which are completely strong. 



Ch. i. AUXILIARY VERBS. 12$ 

CHAPTER I. 

AUXILIARY VERBS. 

The most important difference between the Latin and 
the French conjugations lies in this, — that the passive and 
several past tenses of the active are expressed in Latin by 
terminations (am-averam, am-or), while in French they are 
expressed by the participle of the verb preceded by avoir 
for the active, and by etre for the passive (as favais aime, 
je suis aim/). 

This introduction of auxiliary verbs in conjugation, which 
seems at first sight foreign to the genius of the Latin 
language, was not an isolated fact, or an innovation without 
precedents ; in germ it existed in the best ages of the 
Roman idiom : so Cicero said, ' De Caesare satis dictum 
habeo' ( = dixi); 'habeas scriptum. . noraen' ( = scripseras); 
'quae habes instituta perpolies ( = instituisti). And again, 
Caesar, ' Vectigalia parvo pretio redempta habet ( = re- 
demit); ' copias quas habebat paratas' ( = paraverat). Thus 
in the time of Augustus there sprang up beside the synthetic 
forms 1 dixi, scripseram, paravi, &c, the analytical form, 
habeo dictum, habebam scriptum, habeo paratum : after 
a time this became the form of both common Latin and 
of the six Romance languages ; for this second form 
spread according as the analytical tendencies of the lan- 
guage developed themselves, and from the sixth century 
downwards Latin MSS. provide plentiful examples of it. 
The same is the case with the inflexions of the passive 
voice : common Latin substitutes for them the verb sum 



1 For the difference between synthetic and analytic forms, see 
lEgger, Grammaire comparee, p. 91. 



124 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

joined with the participle of the verb (sum amatus instead 
of amor). In the collections of Merovingian diplomas we 
meet in every page with these new forms : ' Omnia quae ibi 
sunt aspecta' ( = aspectantur) ; ' Sicut a nobis praesente 
tempore est possessum' ( = possidetur) ; ' Hoc volo esse 
donatum' ( = donari) ; 'Quod ei nostra largitate est con- 
cessum' ( = conceditur), &c. 

Just as in the declensions the new languages had aban- 1 
doned the terminations of the cases, and had substituted 
prepositions in their room (eaball-i = du cheval), so in the 
conjugations they abandoned the synthetic forms of the 
compound tenses, and replaced them by auxiliary verbs — a 
natural result of that necessity which drove the Latin Ian- 
guage from the synthetic to the analytic state. 

SECTION I. 

Eire. 

■ C 
The Latin verb esse was defective, and borrowed six 

tenses (fui, fueram, fuero, fuerim, fuissem, forem) from 

fore and the unused fuere. In French the verb etre is 

composed of three different verbs: (1) Fuo, whence the, 

preterite /us (fui), and the subjunctive /usse (fuissem) ; _ 

(2) Stare, which gives the past participle /// (O. Fr. este) 

from status; (3) Esse, which gives all the rest of the tenses. 

I. Present Infinitive : etre (O. Fr. estre). 

To such defective verbs as velle, posse, offerre, inferre, \ 
esse, which were too short to carry the usual Roman in- " : 
finitive, common Latin subjoined the termination -re, and so ' a 
produced a false resemblance to verbs of the second con- • 
jugation. Thus, from the sixth century downwards, Me- 
rovingian MSS. give us volere (for velle), potere (for . 
posse), offerrere (for offerre), inferrere (for inferre), essere 
(for esse). 



Ch. i. Sect. i. AUXILIARY VERBS. 12$ 

Es3ere having its accent on the first syllable (essere) 
became ess* re, or estre, which is in fact the French infinitive. 
This etymology is otherwise confirmed by the form taken by 
the same verb in the other Romance languages; in Italian 
essere, in Spanish and Portuguese ser, and in Provencal esser. 
And if any one doubts whether the form essere ever did 
exist, we may easily reply by quoting actual cases. 

Thus, in Gruter's collection of Roman inscriptions (No. 

I 1062, 1) may be read this epitaph found in Rome in a 

I church of the seventh century : ' Cod estis fui et cod sum 

essere abetis,' i. e. ' quod estis, fui, et quod sum esse habetis 

|( = eritis). In a series of Carolingian diplomas 1 , of the date 

a.d. 820, are these words: 'quod essere debuissent'; in 

the year 821, 'essere de beneficio' ; in a.d. 836, 'quod de 

ista ecclesia Vulfaldo episcopus essere debuisset.' And the 

I same elongation by addition of -re applied to the compounds 

' of esse (as adesse, &c.) is also to be found ; as in a 

', Chartulary of a.d. 818, ' quam ingenuus adessereV 

II. Present Participle: etant. This is formed from 
etre regularly, as mettant from mettre. 

III. Past Participle : ete (O. Fr. este), from the Latin 
status. 



1 Perard, Recueil de pieces relatives a Vbistoire de Bourgogne 
(Paris, 1664), pp. 34-36. 

2 Perhaps it may be thought that I have insisted too much, 
and with too many illustrations, on the proof thatietre and essere 
are the same word. I have done so because I wished definitely 
to refute a widespread and often-repeated error, namely, that 
etre comes from the Latin stare. How could stare, whose 
accent is on the first syllable, have produced etre? And again, 
how would stare go with the Provencal esser, the Italian 
essere, the Spanish and Portuguese ser f And lastly, we know 
with certainty that stare has become the French ester, and could 
not have produced anything else. So we have the phrase ' ester 

jj en justice,' = stare in justitia. Ester has also survived in a few 
\ compounds, like rester, re-stare ; arreter (O. Fr. arrester), ad- 
! re-stare. 



126 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

IV. Present Indicative. Comes from the correspond- 
ing Latin tense. 

Suis, sum (in Old French the form was sui, the more 
correct, as there is no final j in the Latin) ; es, es ; est, est ; 
sommes, sumus ; ties (O. Fr. estes), estis ; so?it, sunt. 

V. Imperfect. jStais does not come from the Latin, but 
has been formed straight from etre, as mettais from metlre 1 . 
Side by side with this imperfect of French origin, Old French 
had another drawn straight from the Latin : fere, eram ; lu 
eres, eras ; il ert, erat, &c. This form perished in the four- 
teenth century. 

VI. Perfect (or definite past). From the corresponding 
Latin tense. 

Fus (O. Fr. /ui), fui ; /us (O. Fr. /uis), fuisti ; /ut, fuit ; 
/times, fuimus (the circumflex on this word is an error of 
the sixteenth century, and offends against etymological pro- 
priety) ; /utes (O. Fr./ustes), fuistis ; /urent, fuerunt. 

VII. Future and Conditional. Serai (O. Fr. esserai).\ 
The French future is, as has been said, a compound of the 
infinitive of the verb and the auxiliary avoir (aimerai = amare; 
habeo) ; and thus esserai represents essere-habeo. The same 
is true of the conditional serais (O.Fr., twelfth century, esserais). 
For the formation of the conditional, see above, p. 120. 

VIII. Present Subjunctive. From the corresponding 
Latin tense. 

Sot's (O.Fi. sot), aim.; sois, sis; soil, sit; soient, sint. The,, 
forms soyons, soyez, come from siamus, siatis, not from; 
simus, si/is (whose resultants ought to have been soins, soiz) 2 .< 

1 M. Littr6 (Histoire de la langue franqaise, ii. 201), and after 
him G. Paris (Accent latin, pp. 79, 132), have shewn that etais or 
estois could not possibly come from stabam. It is surely a typo- 
graphical error when M. Littre, in his Dictionnaire historique de la 
langue francaise (s. v. Eire), says, ' etais vient de stabam.' 

2 See the rule for the continuance of the Latin accent, abovi 
p. 34. 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. AUXILIARY VERBS. 127 

IX. Imperfect Subjunctive. From the Latin pluperfect. 
Fusse, fuissem ; fusses, fuisses ; filt (O. Fr.fuist), fuisset ; 

I fussions, fuissemus ; fussiez, fuissetis ; fussent, fuissent. 

X. Imperative. This tense is composed entirely of forms 
borrowed from the subjunctive (sot's, quit soil, soyons, soyez, 
quits soieni). These have been already discussed above, 
VIII. 

SECTION II. 
Avoir. 
General Remarks. The initial h of the Latin habere, 
avoir, has vanished from the French conjugation, like the h 
of hordeum, orge; homo, on 1 ; hora, or, &c. 

The Latin b has become v : habere = avoir, habebam - 
avais, as in prouver, probare ; couver, eubare ; /eve , faba ; 
1 cheval, eaballus, &c. 2 

I. Present Infinitive. Avoir (O. Fr. aver), habere. 

II. Present Participle. Ayant, for the Latin habentem 
| (or habendo). The b has disappeared in French, as viorne, 
| viburnum; taon, tabanus, &c. 

III. Past Participle. Eu (O. Fr. eii, ail or aiit) ; in the 
eleventh century avut, from the Latin habitum. The old 
form avut shews that, at the beginning, the French language 
retained the Latin b. 

IV. Present Indicative. From the corresponding Latin 
tense. 

At, habeo ; as, habes ; a (O. Fr. at), habet — the / of the 
Old French being etymological ; avons (O. Fr. avomes), hab6- 
mus ; avez, habetis ; ont, habent. 

V. Imperfect. From the corresponding Latin tense. 
Avais (O. Fr. avoi or avei), habebam (the Old French, 

always more correct, and true to etymology, had no s in the 
ist person sing.); avais, habebas ; avait, habebat; avions 



1 See above, p. 116. a See above, p. 6o. 



128 CONJUGATION. Bk.II. Pt. J 

(O. Fr. aviomes), habebamus ; aviez, habebatis ; avaient, 
habebant. 

VI. Perfect (or Preterite). From the corresponding 
Latin tense. 

Eus (O. Fr. eu), habui ; eus, habuisti ; eut, habuit ; eumes, 
habuimus ; eutes (O. Fr. eilstes), habuistis ; eurent, habue- 
runt. 

VII. Future and Conditional. 

Aurai, O. Fr. avrai, twelfth century averai; which is 
composed of the infinitive aver (see above, p. 119) and the 
auxiliary at, reproducing habere-habeo ; and is another in- 
stance confirming the theory of Raynouard on the formation 
of the future tense \ How useful it is to cite the Old French 
forms, which lie between Latin and Modern French ! They 
illustrate the transition and shew how the passage from the 
one language to the other has been effected. 

The conditional aurms (O. Fr. avrais) is found in the 
oldest texts as averais. For the formation of the conditional 
aver-ais, see pp. 120, 121. 

VIII. Present Subjunctive. From the corresponding 
Latin tense. 

Ate, habeam; aies, habeas; ait, habeat; ayons (O. Fr. 
aiomes), habeanms ; ayez, habeatis ; aient, habeant. 

IX. Imperfect. From the Latin pluperfect. 
JSusse, habuissem ; eusses, habuisses ; eut (O. Fr. eust, \ 

aiist), habuisset ; eussions, habuissemus ; eussiez, habuisse- 
tis; eussent, habuissent. 

Remark. — We have seen (under III) that the past par- 
ticiple eu was originally dissyllabic eil, answering to its ety- 
mology. The same is true of the French imperfect. The 
medial b having disappeared, habuissem became aiisse, 
which came in the twelfth century to eiisse. And the eii of 

1 See above, pp. 119, 120. 



Ch. 2. CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS. 1 29 

eiissions, eiissiez, eiissent, &c, was both pronounced and 
counted in versification as two syllables. 

X. Imperative. The imperative {aie, ayons, ayez) is 
composed of forms belonging to the subjunctive. (See 
above, VIII.) 

CHAPTER II. 

CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS. CONJUGATIONS. 

The French verbs, which are 4060 in number 1 , are ar- 
ranged under four conjugations, according to the termination 
of the infinitive. The first, ending in -er, is the largest, 
embracing 3620 verbs. The second, ending in -ir, has 350 
verbs. The third, which ends in -oz'r, counts only 30, and 
the fourth, in -re, has 60. Thus the first conjugation by 
itself embraces nine-tenths of the French verbs. 

I. First Conjugation {-er). 

The conjugation ending in -er answers to the Latin first 
conjugation in -are. As we have seen elsewhere 2 , a be- 
comes e in French, as nasus, nez ; mortalis, mortel ; whence 
-are = -er, portare, porter. 

At first this conjugation embraced only the Latin verbs 
ending in -are, and consequently has the weak infinitive, 
aniare, aimer. As time went on, learned writers introduced 
into this conjugation verbs derived from Latin verbs in -ere, 
which have no true connection with the French conjugation 
in -er. 

These verbs, introduced into the French language in the 
fourteenth century and onwards, are of two kinds : — 

1. Those from Latin verbs which have the weak in- 

1 I have based this calculation on the Dictionnaire deV Academie^ 
ed. 1835. 

2 See above, p. 67. 



130 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt.2. 

finitive -ere, as persuadere, exercere, absorbere, reverere ; 
these ought to have found their place in the French third 
conjugation, under the forms persuadoir, exergoir, absorboir, 
re've'roir, &c, just as habere, debere, make avoir, devoir. 

Instead of this, which would have been the regular forma- 
tion, we have the mongrel verbs persuader, exercer, absorber, 
reverer, &c. 

2. Those with the strong infinitive -ere, as afiligere, im- 
primere, texere. These words answer properly to the 
French fourth conjugation in -re (vendere, vendre), and 
ought in French to be afflire, empreindre, tistre \ not affiiger, 
imprimer, tisser, just as pendere, vendere, tenders, have 
produced pendre, vendre, tendre, not pender, vender, tender. 

Of verbs in -ire, there is but one such introduced into 
this conjugation, namely tousser, tussire; and even this one 
is of modern use, for the Old French form was the correct 
one, tussir. Mouiller and chatouiller, which one might be 
tempted to put under this head, are not cases in point, as 
they come from the common Latin forms molliare, catul- 
liare, not from mollire, catullire. 

II. Second Conjugation (-ir). 

The French conjugation in -ir answers to the Latin fourth 
conjugation ending in -Ire. It embraces words derived from 
Latin verbs in -ire, as finire, finir ■■; in -ere, as Hovere, fleurir; 
and in -ere, as colligere, cueillir. 

There are 350 verbs in this conjugation, which may be 
subdivided under two very distinct heads : — 

1. Those which follow the Latin conjugation in all their 



1 These verbs are not mere inventions ; they are to be found 
in the twelfth-century texts, instead of affliger, imprimer, tisser. 
In fact the Dictionary of the French Academy still retains 
empreindre and tistre . 



Ch. 2. CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS. 131 

tenses and persons : as, for example, venir, venire ; whose 
present is viens, venio ; imperfect, venais, veniebam ; and 
so on, each French part coming directly from the corre- 
sponding Latin inflexion. 

2. Those which add -is to the root, instead of simply fol- 
lowing the Latin forms : as fleurir, florire ; in the present 
fleur-is, imperfect fleur-iss-ais, instead offleur, floreo \fleurais, 
florebani; which would be formed like viens, venais, from 
venio, veniebam. The question arises, What is the origin 
of these words thus strangely formed? by what procedure 
has the French language produced them ? The answer is 
this : The Latins had such verbs as durescere, florescere, 
implescere, gemiscere, which marked a gradual growth (or 
augmentation) of the action expressed by the simple verb. 
(So durescere means to grow more and more hard.) These 
Priscian calls, for this reason, 'inchoative verbs.' Their 
characteristic syllable is esc, which in French became is : 
thus flor-esc-o became fleur-is ; flor-ese-ebam, fleur-iss-ais , 
&c. The French language seized on this syllable, and added 
it to those Latin verbs which, when transmuted into French* 
would have produced forms too short and abrupt. But 
while it adopted this inchoative form in iss for the (1) indica- 
tive present, empl-is, impl-esc-o; (2) the imperfect, empl-iss- 
ais, impl-esc-ebam ; (3) the present participle, empl-iss-ant, 
impl-esc-entem ; (4) the subjunctive, empl-iss-e, impl-ese- 
am ; and (5) the imperative, empl-is, impl-esc-e, it refused 
it for (1) the infinitive [emplir comes from implere; for 
impliscere would have produced, not emplir but empUtre, 
like paitre from pascere) ; and consequently (2) the future 
and (3) conditional tenses, formed as we have seen (p. 121) 
from the infinitive of the verb and the auxiliary avoir 
(emplir-ai), have also rejected the inchoative form. So too 
have (4) the perfect indicative and (5) the perfect subjunc- 
tive, which come direct from the Latin. 

K 2 



132 CON JUG A TION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

Thus then, to sum it up, these second-conjugation verbs 
are in two classes: I. A small class of verbs which we 
may call non-inchoative (as partir, venir, &c), which follow 
faithfully, and reproduce exactly, the Latin verb in all their 
tenses; and II. The inchoatives, true irregular verbs, with 
five inchoative and five non-inchoative tenses, as we have just 
seen. At first sight one would say that the first class ought 
to be taken as the types of the French second conjugation, 
and the inchoatives classed among the irregular verbs. But 
grammarians have followed the opposite course: the non- 
inchoative class is banished among the irregulars, and it is 
decided that the inchoatives are to furnish the typical form of 
the second conjugation and of its regularity. At any rate 
numbers are on their side. There are but 22 non-inchoatives, 
to set against 329 inchoatives^ . 

III. Third Conjugation (-oir). 

The French conjugation ending in -oir corresponds to 
that of the Latins (second), which ended in -ere ; as habere, 
avoir; debere, devoir. This conjugation embraces only 
thirty French verbs; and this number may be reduced to 
seventeen, as the remaining thirteen are compounds. 

Beside these weak infinitives in -ere, certain strong in- 
finitives in -ere have contributed to this conjugation : as 
recipere, recevoir ; sapere, savoir ; fallere, fatloir ; conci- 
pere, cone ev oir, &c. 



1 The following are the non-inchoatives : — bouillir, courir, 1 
cowvrir, cueillir, dormir, faillir, fuir, mentir, mourir, offrir, owvrir, j 
partir, guerir, repentir, sentir, sortir, souffrir, te?iir, tressaillir, •venir, 
'vetir. Several verbs, which are at the present day solely in- 
choative, had in Old French simple forms which they have since 
lost. Thus we find in Old French Us emplent, implent, in- 
stead of Us emplissent, implescunt ; its gement, gemunt, instead 
of Us gem-iss-ent, gemesexmt; gemant, gementem, instead of 
gem-iss-ant, gemescentem, &c. 



I Ch. 2. CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS. 1 33 

IV. Fourth Conjugation {-re). 

This conjugation, answering to the Latin strong (third) 
! conjugation in -ere, includes sixty verbs. It ought properly 
I to embrace only such as are derived from strong Latin verbs 
j (as legere, lire ; defendere, defendre) ; but through a mis- 
| placement of the accent it has come to include a number of 
j weak verbs, as ridere, respondere, tondere, mordere, pla- 
i cere, tacere, whose French resultants ought properly to 
1 have been ridoir, re'pondoir, tondoir, &c. The accent however 
: in these words being wrongly thrown back on the root- 
■ syllable (ridere, &c.) the resultant French verb, following 
I the error, has become rire, repondre, tondre, mordre, plaire, 
taire, &c. 

Before beginning the study of these conjugations it will 
I be well to point out that the conjugation in -oir differs from 
j that in -re only in the form of the infinitive : — 

-oir : recev-oir, recev-ant, reg-u, ref-ois, reg-us. 
-re : croi-re, croy-ant, cr-u, cr-ois, cr-us. 

m 

Such differences as these two conjugations may happen 
to present arise from modifications of the root, not from 
changes in inflexion. It is, therefore, perfectly fair to form 
one conjugation out of these two; and to say that the 
j French language has three conjugations (1) in -er, (2) in -ir, 
(3) in -oir, or -re. 

We propose to study the conjugations in detail under 
these three heads, and in the order here given. 



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136 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt. 



CHAPTER III. 

FORMATION OF TENSES. 

The foregoing two pages of tables of terminations are 
intended to make the formation of the three conjugations 
in (1) -er, (2) -ir, (3) -oir and -re, clearer to the eye, 
and set side by side all the tenses and persons of each 
mood. 

Opposite each Latin form is placed the corresponding 
French form, and (when necessary to mark the transition) 
the Old French form is put between the two, in common 
type. Thus, when we read under the 1st plural present 
indicative, ' -amus, -omes, -ons,' it means that the Latin 
-amus becomes in Old French -omes, and thence -ons in 
Modern French. Such Latin terminations as are unaccented 
in this table become mute in French. 

Remarks. 

I. Present Indicative. 

In the second and third conjugations the s has been 
wrongly added to the 1st person sing., as pars, rends. 
This letter (which violates the rules of etymology) did not 
exist in Old French, whose forms were/e voi,je rend; the s 
was properly reserved to mark the 2nd person sing., tu 
rends, reddis; tu vois, vid-es. For the origin of this s, 
see above, p. 121. 

The / which marks the 3rd person sing., ama-t, vide-t, 
legi-t, audi-t, survived throughout in O. Fr. il aime-t x , il lit, 
il ou'it. But through one of those strange and inconsequent 
changes which often meet us in the growth of languages, 

1 The -et in aimet was mute, as is the -ent of aiment. 



Ch. 3. FORMATION OF TENSES. 137 

and not uncommonly in French, this etymological / dis- 
appeared from the first conjugation (il aime), while it re- 
mained in all the others (il lit, voii, oui't). 

The 1 st person plur. (amamus) was originally aim-omes. 
As time went on all the terminations in -omes were softened 
down into -ons, and the only relic of the form still to be 
found in Modern French is the word sommes (sumus), which 
ought to have been reduced to sons, just as aim-omes has 
become aim-ons. 

The third conjugation in Latin (16gere) had the 1st and 
2nd persons plur. 16gimus, 16gitis, strong ; whence the 
resultants ought to have been limes, lites, not UsSns, lise'z, 
which are weak forms. The fact is that the word came to 
be wrongly accented, and pronounced leginrus, legltis, 
whence the forms lisons, lisez, naturally followed. Dites 
(dicitis) and faites (facitis), which are regarded as excep- 
tions by grammarians, are in reality perfectly regular. In 
Old French the 1st person plur. of these same verbs was also 
strong, dimes (dicimus), in place of disons, and faimes 
(facinms) instead of faisons. 

II. Imperfect. 

-abam became in French, following the dialects from 
south to north, -eve, -oie, -eie, -one. Thus amabam became 
in Burgundy am-eve, in the He de France (or in French 
proper), am-oie, in Normandy am-oue 1 . The dialect of the 

1 Notice how near the form ame've, which retains the Latin 
consonant (v = b), is to the original am-abam. And indeed it is 
generally true that the Romance forms, which are as clear and 
sonorous in the south as the Latin itself, contract and be- 
come dull-sounded, as one goes northward. Thus cantabam 
became in Spain cantaba, in Italy and Provence cantata, in Bur- 
gundy chante've, in the He de France chantois, in Normandy chan- 
toue. Latin words are like a very sensitive thermometer, which 
drops lower and lower as one goes northward, and the changes 
take place in continued and successive descents, not by sudden 
falls. ' Natura nil facit per saltum.' 



I $8 CONJUGA TION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

He de France having gradually supplanted all the others 1 , 
its imperfect -ote, -abam, prevailed, and became the type of 
the Modern French imperfect. In the fourteenth century 
an erroneous j was subjoined to the 1st person sing., and 
hence we get the form -ois (am-ois), which prevailed up 
to the end of the eighteenth century, when Voltaire substi- 
tuted for it the now established termination in -ais (aim-ais). 
A century before Voltaire, in the year 1675, an obscure 
lawyer, Nicolas Berain, had already suggested this reform. 

It may be further noticed that the 1st and 2nd persons 
plur. chantions, chantiez, now dissyllabic, were trisyllabic in 
O.Fr. — ckanf-i-6ns, canta[b]-amus; chant-i-ez, canta[b] -atis. 
The older form marks the force of the Latin accent. 

III. Perfect. 

Cantavi, cantavit, cantavimus, have resulted regularly in 
chantai, chanta, chantdmes. Chantas, chantdtes, chanterent, 
however, do not come from cantavisti, cantavistis, canta- 
verunt 2 , but from the contracted forms cantasti, cantastis, 
cantarunt. For the same reason dormz's, dormites, dormirent, 
come from dormisti, dormistis, dormirunt, not from dor- 
mivisti, dormivistis, dormiverunt. 

It may also be remarked that the perfects of the first three 
conjugations are weak : chant-ai, cantavi ; dormi's, dormivi ; 
rendis, reddidi 3 . The strong perfects, vins, veni ; fis, feci, 
belong to the irregular verbs. 

IV. Future and Conditional. 

These tenses do not appear in the Table of Formation of 
Tenses, because their proper place is not there. The table 



1 This fact is explained above, p. 19. 

2 These longer forms, following the law of the influence of the 
Latin accent, would have produced in French cbante'is, chante'istes, 
chanteirent, not chantas, cbantastes, chanterent. 

3 For perfects of the third conjugation, see the chapter on 
Irregular Verbs, p. 142. 



Ch. 3. FORMATION OF TENSES. 1 39 

is intended to give a comparative view of those tenses which 
come direct from the Latin, or in other words, of the simple 
tenses : the future and conditional are compound tenses, 
made up of the infinitive of the verb and the auxiliary avoir 
{aimer -at, aimer- ais). On which point see above, p. 120. 

V. Present Subjunctive. 

The t which ended the 3rd person sing, of this tense in 
Latin ame-t, dormia-t, redda-t ; &c, though now lost in the 
French aime, donne, rende, &c, was present in O. Fr. aimet, 
dormet, rendet. It survives still in the two words ait, habeat, 
and soit, sit. 

It is now impossible to distinguish between the imperfect 
indicative chantions, chantiez, and the present subjunctive. 
But in Old French they were clearly distinguished ; for the 
subjunctive forms were dissyllabic, while the imperfect indica- 
tive was trisyllabic, following the Latin accent : — 

Imperf. indie. : Chant-i-ons, cant-ab-amus ; chant-i-ez, 
cant-ab-atis 

Subjunct. pres. : Chant-ions, cant-emus ; chant-iez, eant- 
6tis. 

VI. Imperfect Subjunctive. 

Here, as in the perfect indie. (Ill) the French form is 
derived from the contracted Latin form : aim-asse does not 
come from am-avissem, but from am-assem. 

VII. Imperative. . 

The 2nd person sing, is formed from the Latin impera- 
tive aim-e, ama ; fin-i, finis, &c. The other persons are 
usually borrowed from the indicative. 

VIII. Present Infinitive. 

In addition to the details given in Section II we may here 
say that certain Latin infinitives in -ere (consequently strong), 
have produced strong infinitives in Old French, and weak 
ones in Modern French. Thus currere, qua<§rere, fremere, 



14° CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

g6mere, imprimere, have resulted in O. Fr. courre^, querre, 
freindre, geindre, empreindre, but in Modern French these 
have become courir, que'rir, fre'mir, g/mir, imprimer ; these 
forms arising from a misplacement of the Latin accent. 

IX. Present Participle. 

The French language has adopted the form of the objec- 
tive case, am-antem, aimant 2 ; not of the subjective, amans. 

X. Past Participle. 

All the past participles of what are called regular verbs 
are weak : aim-e, amatus ; fin-i, fin-itus, &c. There are a 
few strong forms among past participles ; but these belong 
exclusively to irregular verbs. 

Originally, all past participles which were strong in Latin 
kept the strong form in French : thus vendre, vend-ere, had 
vent, not vendu, as its past participle. At a later period 
these forms were made weak by the addition of the final u 
(mark of the weak participle of the third conjugation). Then 
the strong forms disappeared from the ranks of participles, 
though a considerable number of them are still in existence 
as substantives. 

Before leaving the past participle we may observe that 
the Romance languages, and especially French, possess the 
faculty of being able to form substantives out of past parti- 
ciples : we can say un regu, u?i fait, un du — words which are 
really the past participles of regevoir, /aire, devoir. But this 
is more especially the case with 'feminine participles, as issue, 
vue, e'touffee, venue, avenue, &c. The number of substantives 
thus added to the language is considerable; for they are 
formed from both classes of participles, strong and weak : — 

1 Still used in the phrase ' courre le cerf.' It was in use in 
the eighteenth century. ' Aller courre fortune ' is a phrase em- 
ployed by Mme. de Sevigne, Bossuet, Voltaire, &c. 

2 [Or from amando, ' une femme aimant son mari,' ' femina 
amando suum maritum.'] 



Ch. 3. FORMATION OF TENSES. 141 

1. With weak, or regular, participles : chevauchee, accouche'e, 
fauche'e, tranche'e, avenue, battue, crue, de'convenue, entrevue, 

e'tendue, issue, revue, tenue, &c. 

2. With strong, or irregular, participles : un dit, un joint, 
un reduit, un trait, &c. As we have said, these forms dis- 
appeared as participles, but survive as substantives ; as vente, 
vendita, which is the old form of the participle, now vendue. 

Subjoined is a list of these substantives x — ' a list whose 
special interest lies in the illustration it affords of the history 
of the Latin accent, and of its influence at the time of the 
formation of the French language.' 

By the side of the old strong participle, now a substantive, 
and the Latin word it comes from, we will place the modern 
weak participle in a parenthesis. 

1. First Conjugation: emplette, implicita {employ >/e) ; ex- 
ploit, explicitum (e'ploye'). 

2. Third Conjugation : meuie, mota (mue), and its com- 
pound e'meute, emota (emue) ; pointe, puncta (poindre), from 
piingere (this word has remained as a participle in 
the expression courte -pointe, Old French coulte -pointe, 
Lat. culcita puncta) ; course, cursa (courue) ; entorse, intorta 
(tordue) ; trail, tractum, and its compounds portrait, retrait, 
&c. ; source (surgie), and its compound ressource, from the 
verb sourdre (surgere) ; route, rupta (rompue), and its com- 
pounds deroule, banqueroute (i. e. banque rompue) ; defense, 
defensa {def endue), and its kinsfolk offense, &c. ; tente, tenta 
(lendue), and its compounds attente, detente, entente, &c. ; rente, 
reddita (r endue); />£«/£, pendita* (pendue), and its compounds, 
as soupente, suspendita* (suspendue) ; vente, vendita (ve?idue); 
perte, perdita {perdue); quete, quaesita, and its compounds 
conquele, requete, enquete; recette, recepta {regue) ; de.tte, debita 
(due) ; reponse, responsa (re'pondue) ; elite, electa {flue). 

1 Or rather of such of them as offer any points of interest. 



142 CONJUGATION. . Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

CHAPTER IV. 

IRREGULAR VERBS (so called). 

Grammarians have entitled the following verbs ' irregular/ 
and those treated of in Chapter III 'regular'; but, if 
proper regard be paid to the place of the Latin accent, it 
will be seen that we are right in calling the former verbs 
strong and the latter weak. The terms ' regular' and 
'irregular' do but state a fact, at best; but the distinction 
between strong and weak penetrates deeper, and expresses 
a principle. Looked at from our point of view, the old con- 
ception of irregularity disappears, and the word is applied 
solely to anomalous and defective verbs ; and the strong 
verbs (hitherto named 'irregulars') are considered simply 
as another method of conjugation. ' Irregularity ' presup- 
poses formations which, for whatever cause, have deviated 
from the typal form; but, in the case of strong verbs, no 
such deviation has taken place : they are as regular as any 
others, only they obey a different law \ 

The verbs usually styled 'regular' have a weak perfect 
(i. e. accented on the last syllable), as amavi, aim-di ; 
dormivi, dorm-is; redd-idi, rendis, &c, and all regular verbs 
of the strong type have their perfect strong (i. e. accented 
on the root), as tenui, tins; dixi, dis ; f§ci, fis. 

There are only two irregular verbs under the second 
conjugation 2 ; tenir from tenere, and venir from venire, 
whose preterites are tins, tenui, and vins, veni. 

The seventeen verbs collected under the name of the 
third conjugation, which have vexed philosophical gram- 



1 Cp. Littre, Histoire de la languefrangaise, i. 121. 

2 The first conjugation has no irregular verbs, properly so 
called ; for alter and envoyer are anomalous. 



Ch. 5. Sect. 1. DEFECTIVE VERBS. 1 43 

marians from Vaugelas to Girault-Duvivier, are for the most 
part old strong verbs, like regevoir, reeipere ; congevoir, con- 
cipere; degevoir, decipere, which in Old French were regoivre, 
congoivre, degoivre, following the law of their etymology. 
These all have the strong perfect, regus, recepi; congus, 
concepi; degus, decepi. 

The fourth conjugation has nine irregular verbs : dire, 
dicere; plaire, plaeere 1 ; taire, taeere ; /aire, facere; mettre, 
mittere ; prendre, prendere ; rire, ridere ; lire, 16gere ; 
croire, credere ; whose perfects are the following strong 
forms — dis, dixi ; fis, feci ; mis, misi ; pris, prendi ; plus, 
placui; /us, tacui ; ris, risi; lis, legi ; crus, credidi. 



CHAPTEE V. 
DEFECTIVE AND ANOMALOUS VERBS. 

Defective verbs are those which, like faillir, are deficient 
in some tenses, moods, or persons. 

Anomalous verbs are those whose irregularities forbid 
them to be arranged under any class. These are the true 
1 irregular verbs.' 

SECTION I. 

DEFECTIVE VERBS. 

Two in the first conjugation — ester and tisser ; six in the 
second— -faillir, firir, issir, ouir, querir, gfcir ; thirteen in 

1 The accent on the verbs plaeere, taeere, ridere, came 
at last to override the force of the long penultimate. See 
above, p. 133. 



1 44 CON J UGA TION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

the third — braire, frire, tistre, clore, soudre, sourdre, traire, 
pailre, souloir, falloir, chaloir, choir, seoir 1 . 

1. Ester. Used in the infinitive only in certain judicial 
formulae, as l ester en jugement' (to bring an action, to 
institute a suit) ; ' La femme ne peut ester en jugement 
sans l'autorisation de son mari V This verb, which comes 
from the Latin stare (see above, p. 125), remains still in the 
compounds contraster, contra-stare ; rester, re-stare ; arreter 
(O. Fr. arrester), ad-re-stare ; and in the participles constant, 
con-stare ; distant, di-stare ; instant, in-stare ; non-ob-stant, 
ob-stare. The past participle est/, status, has been bor- 
rowed by the verb etre, and contracted into ete. See above, 
p. 126. 

2. Tisser and tistre. These two verbs come from the 
Latin texere. The strong form, tistre, texere, which is the 
Old French one, has disappeared, leaving only its participle 
tissu (which comes from tistre, just as rendu from rendre). 
The weak tisser (which comes, as it were, from texere) 
violates the law of Latin accent, and is a modern word : it 
has prevailed over the other form, but has adopted its strong 
past participle. 

3. Faillir. The persons of the singular je faux, iu 
faux, il faut, have almost fallen into disuse, and we may 

regret the fact. They remain in the phrases, 'le cceur me 
faut/ 'au bout de Yvxmz faut le drap/ i.e. 'the cloth fails 
at the end of the ell ' = ' all things come to an end.' 

The future and conditional faudrai, faudrais, are also 
being forgotten, and have been almost entirely replaced by 
the compounds faillir -ai, faillir-ais. Instead of ' je ne 



1 These verbs, which are now defective, had in Old French 
all their tenses and persons ; and consequently they have no real 
right to form a separate class. It is in fact a historical accident, 
which may affect verbs of any conjugation. 

2 Code Napoleon, Art. 215. 



Ch. 5. Sect. 1. DEFECTIVE VERBS. 145 

fandrai point a mon devoir/ people now begin to say, 'je 
ne faillirai point.' 

4. Ffrir. Frorn the Latin ferire. It survives in the 
phrase ' sans coup ftrir '■ — ' D'Harcourt prit Turin sans coup 

fe'rir.' In Old French this verb was conjugated throughout, 
and was, in the indicative present, ]efier, ferio; tufiers, feris; 
il fieri, ferit 1 , &c. ; in the imperfect ferais, feriebam ; in 
the participle J "erant , f&rientem ; and f/ru, feritus, &c. 

5. Issir. From the Latin exire. (For the change of e 
into i, see p. 50 ; of x into ss, see p. 74.) In Old French this 
word was conjugated thus : — is, exeo ; is, exis ; ist, exit ; 
issons, exLmus; issez, exitis; issent, exeunt. Imperfect, 
issais ; future, istrai ; participles, issant, issu, and issi. 

6. Oui'r. From the Latin audire. In Old French it was 
conjugated throughout, j'ouis, audio; foyais, audi^bam; 
future, forrai ; participles, oyant, audientem; oiii, auditus. 

The Old French future orra, now lost, was extant in the 
seventeenth century : Malherbe wrote — 

' Et le peuple lasse des fureurs de la guerre 
Si ce n'est pour danser, n'orra plus de tambours.' 

Later still, the imperfect oyais is playfully employed, by 
J. J. Rousseau in an epigram : — 

'Par passe-temps un cardinal oyait 
Lire les vers de Psyche, comedie, 
Et les cj/ant, pleurait et larmoyait.' 

The past participle survives in law terms 2 : ' Oiiie la lecture 
de l'arret/ i.e. the reading of the judgment having been 
heard/ 



1 This word remains in a few heraldic legends. The house 
of Solar had as its motto, ' Tel^fe/Y, qui ne tue pas.' 

2 So the Norman-French oyez survives in the English crier's 
I ' O yes, O yes !' and in the law phrase ' oyer et terminer.' 

L 



146 CONJUGATION. Bk.II. Pt.2. 

7. Qu/rir. As to this word, whose compounds are ac- 
qu/rir, requ/rir, and conquer ir, see above, p. 140. The 
strong conjugation had querre as the infinitive (as may be 
seen as late as La Fontaine) : present indie, quiers, qu/rons ; 
fut. querrai ; pret. quis ; p. p. quis (requis, conquis, &c). 

8. G/sir, gisir. From the Latin jacere. The present 
part, of gisir survives, gisant. It has a derivative also, 
ge'sine : ' La laie £tait en g/sine V 

9. Br aire. Only used (according to the French Aca- 
demy) in the infinitive and in the 3rd persons of the present 
indie, brait, braient ; of the future, braira, brairont ; and of 
the conditional, brairait, brairaient. But M. Littre' shews 
clearly that this verdict of the Academy is too severe, and 
he proposes to employ all the forms of this verb which 
existed in Old French (il brayait, il a brail, &c). JBraire, from 
the Low Latin bragire, a word whose derivation is obscure, 
bore in Old French the general sense of 'to cry out/ and was 
applied to man as well as to animals. It is only in later 
days that it has been limited to the braying of the ass 2 . 

10. Frire. From the Latin frigere. This verb still keeps 
all its tenses (fris, frirai, frit, &c.) except the imperfect 
/rial's, the particle /riant, subjunctive frie, and the three 
persons plural of the present indicative, frions, friez, frient 
(as rire makes rions, riez, rient). All these forms are to 
be found in Old French. 

11. Clore. From the Latin claudere : O. Fr. clorre retains 
the d in the first r (for the change from dr to rr, see above, 
p. 74). Clos, clorai, in Old French closais, closant. Its com- 
pounds are /clore (O. Fr. esclore, Latin ex- claudere), enclore 
(in-claudere), and the O. Fr. fors-clore (foris claudere). 
The form cludere in ex-cludere, con-cludere, re-cludere, 



1 La Fontaine, Fables, iii. 6. 

2 This is also true of the English verb ' to bray.' 



Ch. 5. Sect.r. DEFECTIVE VERBS. 147 

has produced the French forms, exclure, conclure, reclure, 
whose past participle, rectus, recluse, still survives. 

12. Soudre (O. Fr. soldre, Latin solvere); like moudre, 
from molere. The past participle was sous. The compounds 
absoudre, absolvere ; dissoudre, dissolvere ; re'soudre, resol- 
vere, also form their past participle in the same way, absous, 
dissous ; resous has given way to re'solu, though it remains 
in ' brouillard resous en pluie/ ' fog turned into rain.' 

13. Sourdre. From the Latin surgere. The strong par- 
ticiple source (as we have seen on p. 141) has survived as 
a substantive, and has a compound, ressource. 

14. Traire. From the Latin trahere. In Old French this 
word had the same sense as the Latin verb ; and it is only 
lately that it has been restricted to the sense of milking. 
Compounds — absiraire, abs-trahere ; ■ extraire, ex-trahere ; 
soustraire, sub-trahere. In addition to these there are, in 
Old French, the words portraire, pro-trahere ; retraire, re- 
trahere; attraire, at-trahere, whose participles have given 
us the substantives portrait, retrait, retraite, and the adjective 
aitrayant. 

15. Paitre. O. Fr. paistre, Latin pascere. The past par- 
ticiple,^, survives in the language of falconry, — 'un faucon 
qui &pu' and in the compound repu from repaitre. 

16. Souloir. From the Latin solere. It had all its tenses 
in Old French; but is now used only in the 3rd person 
imperfect indicative ; ' il soutai't,' i. e. ' he was wont/ La 
Fontaine says in his Epitaph — 

'Deux parts en fit, dont il soulait passer 
L'une a dormir, et l'autre a ne rien faire/ 

17. Falloir. For this word, which comes from fallere, and 
only differs from faillir in its conjugation, see above, p. 144. 

18. Chaloir. From the Latin calere. Now used only 
in the 3rd sing. pres. indie. : ' il ne m'en chaut,' = ' it does 
not trouble me/ ' is no affair of mine/ Still extant in La 

l 2 



1 48 CONJUGA TION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

Fontaine, Moliere, Pascal : ' Soit de bond, soit de vole'e, 
que nous en chaut-il, pourvu que nous prenions la ville de 
gloire 1 .' Voltaire, too, has 'Peu men chautj 'little care IV 
In Old French this verb had all its tenses : chalait, chatut, 
chaudrai, chaille, chalu 2 . 

19. Choir. O. Fr. cheoir, and in very early French chaer, 
caer, cader, Lat. cadere, wrongly accented as cadere (as we 
have seen above, p. 132). Scarcely used except in the infi- 
nitive. But the Old French conjugated the whole verb (chois, 
cheais, cherrai, chut, che'ant, chu). The future, cherrai, was 
used in the seventeenth century : l Tirez la chevillette, et la 
bobinette cherra'*; also the preterit chut: 'Cet insolent 
chut du ciel en terre 4 '; also the participle chu, as in Moliere, 
Femmes Savantes, iv. 3 : — 

' Un monde pres de nous a passe tout du long, 
Est chu tout au travers de notre tourbillon.' 
Its compounds are de'choir and echoir (de- and ex-cadere). 
In Old French there was also mechoir, mescheoir (from minus- 
cadere, see below, p. 180), whose pres. part, exists still in 
the adjective me'chant (O. Fr. meschant, mescheanf). 

20. Seoir. O. Fr. seoir, and in very early Fr. sedeir, Lat. 
sedere. The participles se'ant, sedenteni ; sis, sise, situs, sita, 
are still in use. Compounds, asseoir, ad-sedere ; rasseoir and 
sur seoir, re-, ad-, and super-sedere ; also bien-seani, mal-se'ant. 

SECTION II. 

ANOMALOUS VERBS. 

We have already said that the anomalous are the true 
irregular verbs, as they cannot be brought under any common 
classification. 

They are the following : 

1 Provinciates, Lettre ix. 2 It survives in non-chalant. 

3 Perrault. i Bossuet, Demonstr. ii. 2. 



Ch. 5. Sect. 2. ANOMALOUS VERBS. 149 

1. Aller. This verb has borrowed its conjugation from 
three different Latin verbs: (1) 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sing. pres. 
indie, from vadere — je vat's, vado; tu vas, vadis; il va 
(O. Fr. il va/ 1 ), vadit. (2) The future and conditional 
(J't'ral, firais) come from the Lat. ire, by the usual form- 
ation of the future (see pp. 119, 120). (3) All other tenses 
(allais, allai, allasse, aille, &c.) come from the same root with 
the infinitive aller. Whence then this aller ? In Old French 
it was written aler and aner. Aner leads us to the Low Lat. 
anare, Lat. adnare 2 . (The change of n into /, anare to 
aler, is not uncommon, as may be seen from such forms as 
orphelin from orphaninum, &c, see above, p. 56). 

2. Convoyer, devoyer, envoy er, fonrvoyer. The Latin via, 
which has produced the French vole, formed in Low Latin a 
verb viare, whence O. Fr. ve'ier, antique form of the modern 
voyer, preserved in the compounds given above. Convoyer, 
con-viare, to escort, travel with any one. A merchant-ship 
is still said to be ' convoye' par deux vaisseaux de guerre/ 
Devoyer, O. Fr. desve'ier, Lat. de-ex-viare. It has another 
form in devier. Envoyer, O. Fr. entveier, comes from inde- 
viare. Fourvoyer, O. Fr. forveier, from foris-viare, to go 
out of the way 3 . 

1 The t of this form vat is etymologically valuable. 

2 Adnare and enare, which rightly mean 'to go by water,' 
soon came to express the action of coming and going in any 
way: whether by flying, as in Virgil (Aen. vi. 16), 'Daedalus . . . 
gelidas enavit ad Arctos;' or by walking, as in Silius Italicus, 
'Enavimus has valles.' It is curious that this transition from 
sea to land has also befallen the verb arriver. The Low Lat. 
adripare signified originally ' to reach the shore,' of a traveller 
on board ship ; thence it has got the wider meaning of ' attaining 
to any end in view,' of arriving. [By a reverse process the 
wayfaring viaggio, voyage, of Italy and France, has in the hands 
of the seafaring English been limited to the paths of the ocean.] 

3 It must be a typographical error that makes M. Littre 
derive devier from deviare, and envoyer from inviare. He 
knows better than any one else the Old French forms desvier, 
entvoyer, which preclude such derivations. 



150 CONJUGATION. Bk. II. Pt. 2. 

3. Be'nir. As dieere has become dire, benedieere became 
benedir, or bene'ir. This, the Old French form, which shews 
the continuance of the tonic accent, disappears by contrac- 
tion, and is replaced by the modern be'nir. 

The pretended difference set up by French grammarians 
between benite and be'nie is illusory, and has no foundation 
in the history of the language. Participles ending in -it 
(as be'nit,finit, reussit) dropped the / in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and became bent, fini, re'ussi). The form binit survives 
in the phrases ' pain benit, eau benite.' 

4. Courir. For this verb, see above, p. 140. 

5. Mourir. From the Low Lat. morire, a late active 
form of the deponent verb mori. See above, p. 119. 

6. Vivre. From the Lat. vivere. The perf. ve'cus (O. Fr. 
vescus, vesqui), is singularly anomalous. 

7. Boire. O. Fr. boivre, Lat. bibere. 

8. Voir. O. Fr. veoir, Lat. videre. The Old French 
form displays the force of the Latin accent, and the loss of 
the medial consonant d. In eleventh-century texts the form 
vedeir is met with. 

In Old French the future was voir-ai ; and this, which is a 
better form than verrai, is preserved in the compounds pour- 
voirai, pre'-voirai, &c. It would seem, at first sight, that vis, 
vidisti; vimes, vidimus; vites, vidistis; visse, vidissem ; 
violate the law of the force of the Latin accent ; but this is 
not so, as is shewn by the Old French forms ve'is, vidisti ; 
ve'imes, vidimus ; veistes, vidistis ; veisse, vidissem, &c. The 
same is true of tins, tenuisti ; vins, venisti ; tinnse, vinnse ; 
which are all not exceptions to the law of accent, but contrac- 
tions from Old French regular forms, fern's, tenuisti; vent's, 
venisti ; tenisse, tenuissem ; venisse, venissem. 

9. Mouvoir. The Lat. movere produced at first the form 
mover (still in use in central France), for which mouvoir was 
afterwards substituted. 



Ch. 5. Sect. 2. ANOMALOUS VERBS. 1^1 

10. Savoir. O. Fr. saver, Lat. sapere. This earlier form 
saver gave the future saver-ai, which, afterwards contracted 
into savrai, became saurai in the fourteenth century, just as 
habere produced aver-ai, avraz, aurai. 

11. Valoir. From the Lat. valere. The pres. part, vail- 
lant survives as an adjective. 

12. Ecrire. The O. Fr. escrivre, preserved the final b of 
the Lat. scribere. All the anomalous forms, such as ecrivons 
scribenms; ecrivais, scrib6bam, are etymologically correct, 
and come from the corresponding Latin forms. Its com- 
pounds are d/crire, circonscrire, prescrire, proscrire, souscrtre, 
transcrire. 

13. Naitre. The common Latin converted all deponents 
into active verbs, as we have seen (p. 119). Thus nasci 
became nascere, whence naitre, like paitre from pascere. 
The barbarous perfect nascivi produced the O. Fr. nasqui, 
now naquis. 

14. Verbs ending in -uire 1 . Duire, ducere (in its com- 
pounds conduire, deduire, re'duire, induire, traduire, produire, 
introduire) ; cuire, coquere ; nuire, noeere ; luire, lucere, 
and the compounds of struire, struere ; construire, instruire, 
delruire, destruere. 

15. Verbs ending in -ndre. These verbs, whose d does 
not belong to the Latin root 2 , as cetndre, cingere, drop the 
d in the indie, pres. (cez'ns, ceint, ceignons, &c), and have a 
strong past part, ceinl, einctus, which retains the Latin t. 
On this model are conjugated the following : e'teindre, ex- 
stinguere ; e'ireindre, stringere ; contraindre, constringere ; 
astraindre, astringere ; restreindre, restringere ; feindre. 



1 All these verbs have a weak perfect, which hinders us from 
placing them under the irregular verbs. 

2 Thus the d of rendre (r^ddere) belongs to the Latin ; that 
of ceindre (cingere) does not. 



152 CON J UGA TION. Bk. 1 1 . 

fingere ; enfreindre, infringere ; peindre, pingere ; plaindre, 
plangere ; tetndre, tangere ; atfeindre, attingere ; joindre, 
jungere, with its compound ; otndre, ungere ; poindre, pun- 
gere; epreindre, exprimere; empreindre, imprimere \ geindre, 
g6mere. 



PAET III. 

PARTICLES. 

Under this head we will consider the four classes of in- 
variable words which have been handed down to us by the 
Latins : Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections. 

Before we go through them, two remarkable facts must 
be noted: (i) the addition of s to the termination of most 
of the invariable words, which had no such final letter in 
Latin — as ta?idis, tarn diu ; jadis, jam diu ; sans, sine ; 
certes, certe, &c. ; the O. Fr. oncques, unquam; sempres, 
semper ; and (2) the suppression of the final e in the two 
substantives casa, chez, and hora, or, whose proper French 
forms would have been chese and ore, just as rosa has pro- 
duced rose. Let us add that with the exception of two 
adverbs, gueres and trop, which come from the German, 
all particles are of Latin origin. 

CHAPTER I. 

ADVERBS. 

The Latin suffixes, -e, -ter, which marked the adverb 
(docte, prudenter, &c), disappeared because they were not 
accented ; and, in order to produce a class of words which 
should bear the grammatical mark of the adverb, the French 
language adopted other suffixes. It took for this purpose 
the substantive mens, which under the Empire had come to 
mean 'manner/ 'fashion/ &c, as in Quinctilian, 'bona mente 
factum'; in Claudian, 'devota mente tuentur'; in Gregory 
! of Tours, ' iniqua mente concupiscit/ &c. This ablative 



154 PARTICLES. Bk.II.Pt.3. 

mente, joined with the ablative feminine of the adjective, 
produced^the French adverbial ending -ment: bona-, cara-, 
devota-, mente; bonne-, chere-, devote-, ment. 

But those Latin adjectives which had different termina- 
tions for masculine and feminine (as bonus, bona) had also 
two in French (don, bonne) ; while those Latin words which 
had but one termination for these genders, had also only- 
one in Old French : thus grandis, legalis, prudens, regalis, 
viridis, fortis, &c, became in French grand, loyal, prude?il, 
royal, vert, fort, &c, which adjectives are invariable in Old 
French. Consequently, in the case we are studying, adverbs 
formed by means of the former class (such as bon, bonne) 
always retained the e of the feminine in their root (bonne- 
ment, cherement, devotemeni), while those formed with the 
latter class (grand, royal, &c.) never had e in the radical; 
and accordingly, in the thirteenth century, these adverbs 
were loyal-ment, grand-ment, fort-ment, &c. But in the four- 
teenth century people, no longer understanding the origin 
of this distinction, and not seeing why, in certain adverbs, 
the adjective was feminine, while in others it seemed to be 
masculine, inserted the e, loyal-e-ment, vil-e-ment, &c. — bar- 
barisms opposed both to the history of the words, and to 
the logical development of the language. 

SECTION I. 

ADVERBS OF PLACE. 

Ou, Lat. ubi, O. Fr. u. Ailleurs, aliorsum. Qa, ecee 
hac, and la, illae (already treated of on p. 113) ; their com-: 
pounds, are de fa, de la. Ici, ecce hie (see p. 113). Partout,. 
per totum; dont, de unde (see p. 114); loin, longe; dans, 
O.Fr. dens. In Old French intus became ens, and de-intus,- 
deins or dens, — compound, de dans ; en, O. Fr. ent, inde (seec 
above, p. - 10). 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. ADVERBS. .1^5 

C/ans, O. Fr. caiens, or ca-ens, i. e. ecce-hac-intus. The 
O. Fr. leans or laiens, illac-intus, was the corresponding 
adverb. Alentour, O. Fr. a Venlour, whence its etymology is 
clear enough. Amont, ad montem, i.e. 'up stream/ its 
opposite is aval, ad vallem, 'down stream/ The verb 
avaler used to mean 'to descend' originally; only in later 
times has it been limited to its present sense of swallowing 
down food. Some traces of the original meaning survive in 
Modern French, as in the phrase, 'les bateaux avalent le 
fleuve/ 

For the adverbs avant, devanf, derriere, dessus, dessous, 
dehors, see below, pp. 163, 164. 

To these simple adverbs must be added adverbial ex- 
pressions like nulle part, la-haul, la-bas, en dedans, jusque-la, 
&c, which are compounded of simple adverbs : and finally 
there is the adverb environ, compounded of en and the O. Fr. 
viron, a substantive derived from virer ('to veer' or 'turn 
round'); environ is therefore literally the same with alentour. 
This old word is still to be seen in the substantive a-viron, 
i. e. ' the instrument with which one turns or veers about.' 

SECTION II. 

ADVERBS OF TIME. 

J present, ad praesentem. Or, hora (for the suppres- 
sion of h, see p. 81). Maintenant in Old French meant c in- 
stantly' (' mami rem tenente'). Hui, hodie, which lingers in 
the legal ' d'hui en un an/ Aujourd'hui, Old French, more 
correctly written au jour d'hui is a pleonasm, for it signifies 
literally ' on the day of this day/ Hier, heri. Jadis, jamdiu. 
Foi's, O. Yx.feis,fes, ves, from Latin vice (for the change of 
v into/] see p. 59). Its compounds are, autre-, par-, quelque-, 
toute-,fois. Nagutres, O. Fr. na gueres, is a compound of 
avoir and gueres, which originally meant ' much :' ' je l'ai vu 



156 PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. 

n'a gueres, i. e. 'I have seen him no long time ago.' In Old 
French the verb was not invariable ; in the twelfth century 
there were such phrases as 'la ville £tait assieg£e, riavait 
gueres, quand elle se rendit/ i. e. ' the town had not long 
been besieged before it surrendered/ Remark too that the 
Old French has n'a guere, ri av ait guere, where Modern French 
would have n'y a guere, n'y avait guere : the Old French 
not saying, il y a, but il a (illud habet), according to the 
rule of the objective case (see above, p. 89). Thus, 'il a 
un roi qui . . / (illud habet regem), ' il n'avait aucuns arbres 
dans ce pays ' (illud non habebat aliquas arbores). Roi, 
arbres, are here in the objective case; in Old French the 
subjective would have been rots (rex), &c. From the thir- 
teenth century onwards the y appears in this phrase. But 
the old form il a is still to be met with in the seventeenth 
century, in what is commonly called the Marotic style: 
Racine writes — 

'Entre Leclerc et son ami Coras 
N'a pas longtemps, s'emurent grands debats.' 

(As to the etymology of gueres, see below, p. 160.) Quand, 
quando. Demain, de mane. The Latin mane gives the 
French substantive main ■: ' II joue du main au soir,' i. e. 
1 from morn to eve/ De mane formed the adverb demain, 
which meant originally ' early in the morning/ 

Tot, O. Fr. lost. The origin of this word is obscure. By 
combining it with the adverbs aussi, Men, plus, tant, have 
been formed the compounds aussi-tot, bien-tot, plus-tot, tant- 
tdt. Longtemps (from long and temps, Lat. longum tempus). 
Toujour s, in Old French always written tous jours, simply a 
shortened form of the phrase tous les jours. There was 
formerly an Old French adverb sempres formed from the 
Latin semper, but it disappeared in the fifteenth century. 

Encore, in Old French anc ore, from the Latin hane horam, 



Ch. i. Sect. 2. ADVERBS. 1 57 

' at this hour.' This was the first meaning of the word, as 
is seen in the following passage: 'J'ai vu Paris, et j'y 
rttoumerai encore, quand je reviendrai en France/ i. e. ' at 
the hour in which I return to France/ 

De'sormais, O. Fr. des ore mat's (see under the prepositions, 
below, p. 164, for the origin of the word des). Ore is simply 
hora, and mat's from magis, signifies ' further/ ' more ' 
( = davantage). Thus then des ore mats signifies word for 
word, ' from this hour forwards/ or, ' from the present hour 
to one later/ i. e. ' dating from this present hour/ 

Dortnavant, O. Fr. d'ore en avant, from this present time 
onwards, starting from this present hour 1 . 

Jamais. J a and mats; ja from jam, 'from this mo- 
ment/ as we have seen on p. 152, and mat's from magis, 
'more/ These two words could be separated in Old French: 
as, l Ja ne le ferai mats,' i. e. ' from this moment I will never 
do it again/ 

Souvent, Latin subinde, which had the same sense in the 
common Latin. For the change of inde into ent, see above, 
p. 110. 

Tandis, tarn diu, formerly signified ' during this time.' 
In the thirteenth century men said, 'Le chasseur s'apprete 
a tirer, bande son arc ; mais la corde se rompt, et tandis, le 
lievre s'enfuit/ As late as Corneille we have — 

*Et tandis, il m'envoie 
Faire office vers vous de douleur et de joie.' 

Vaugelas and Voltaire, ignorant of the historic ground for 
this phrase, have blamed it as incorrect. It is quite right. 

Lors, O. Fr. Vore, ilia hora, ' at this hour ;' its compound 
is alors, O. Fr. a Vore. 



1 It may be seen hence how frequently the Latin hora (under 
the forms ore, or) occurs in French adverbial phrases: or, lors 
(J'ore), desormais, dorena c vant, encore, &c. 



I5# PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. 

Puis, depuis : see under the prepositions, p. 164. 

Ensuite, en and suite. Enfin, en and fin. 

Done, tunc. 

Auparavant, from au and par -av ant. The article au was 
added in the fifteenth century. Old French used par-avant : 
'Je ne voulus point etre ingrat/ says Froissard, 'quand 
je considerai la bont^ il qu'il me montra par-avant. 

Deja, de and jam. Tard, tarde. 

Soudain, O. Fr. soubdain, Lat. subitaneus. 

Under adverbs of time may also be classed a great variety 
of adverbial phrases, like tout a coup, d' ordinaire, de bonne 
heure, V autre jour, &c. 

SECTION III. 

ADVERBS OF MANNER. 

As to the formation of these adverbs, which for the most 
part end in -ment, see above, p. 154. 

To this division may be attached a whole class of ad- 
jectives, like vrai, bon, fort, juste, which do the work of 
adverbs (as in ' sentir bon,' ' courir fort,' ' dire vrai,' ' voir ! 
juste,' &c), and answer to the neuter adjectives of the Latin 
(as multum, breve, &c). We need make no remark on 
this class beyond saying that they were far more numerous 
in Old French than now : thus, in the thirteenth century men 
said ' aller lent', ' agir laid,' ' aimer grand,' '/aire seul,' &c, 
instead of ' aller lentement,' ' agir laidement,' ' aimer grande- 
ment,' ' faire seulement,' &c. 

SECTION IV. 

ADVERBS OF INTENSITY. 

These are twenty-five in number. 

St, sic. Its compounds are — aussi, O. Fr. alsi, Lat. aliud 
sic ; ainsi, O. Fr. asi, Lat. hoc sic. 



Ch. i. Sect. 4. ADVERBS. 1 59 

Assez, adsatis, signified originally 'much/ 'very much/ 
and was put after the substantive. In every page of the 
' Chanson de Roland/ we find such phrases as ' Je vous 
donnerai or et argent assez' i. e. ' plenty of gold and silver/ 
trop assez, ' much too much ' ; plus assez, ' much more', &c. 
So, too, the Italian assai is used ; presto assai (prestus 
adsatis), 'very quick indeed' (but not = assez vile). 

Tant, tantum. Its compounds are, autant (O. Fr. al-tant), 
aliud tantum; atant, ad tantum (this word, signifying 
1 then/ occurs as late as La Fontaine) ; parlant, per tan- 
tum = ' consequently ' (or 'by so much'). So La Fontaine 
writes — 

'Les tourterelles se fuyaient 
Plus d'amour, part ant plus de joie.' 

Pour tant, pour and tant. This word, now a synonym with 
neanmoins, ' notwithstanding/ signified in Old French ' pour 
cette cause,' ' for this reason/ Montaigne speaks of a soldier 
who gave no quarter to his foe, and adds, ' Pour tant, il ne 
combattoit que d'une masse/ meaning, ' and for this reason 
he only fought armed with a mace/ 

Ensemble. O. Fr. ensemle, Lat. in-simul. For the change 
of ml into mbl, see above, p. 73. 

Pis, pejus. 

Mieux. O. Fr. melz, mielz ; Lat. melius. 

Peu from paueum, as Eu from Aucum ; feu from fo- 
cum ; jeu from jocum. 

Tellement, telle and ment. For telle, see p. 117, and for 
ment, p. 153. 

Beaucoup, beau and coup. This word is, relatively speak- 
ing, new, and can be traced back only as far as to the four- 
teenth century. Grand coup was the more common phrase ; 
but above all the adverb moult, multum, was employed. 
Coup, O. Fr. colp, is corpus, which is met with in common 



l6o PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. 

Latin in the same sense : ' Si quis alterum voluerit occidere, 
et colpus praeter fallierit, et ei fuerit ad probatum 2000 
dinarios . . . culpabilis indicetur 1 . Colpus was also written 
colphus, and is the Lat. colaphus, a box on the ear, blow, 
slap ; Gr. /coAa^o?. For the change from colaphus to col- 
phus, colpus, see p. 35. 

Moins, minus. Plus, plus. 

Bien, bene. Mai, male; whence malseant, mal-veillant, 
&c. 

Combien, comme bien. Comme, com in Old French, is quo- 
modo. 

Comment, from comme, quomodo, with the suffix -ment 
already treated of. 

Davantage. O. Fr. d'avantage ; de having here the sense 
of ' from ' ; and avantage is from ab-ante -agium. 

Guere. O. Fr. gaires, which means ' much/ In Provencal 
this word is spelt gaigre, and comes from the O. H. Germ. 
weigaro, which is in Mid. H. Germ, weiger 2 . This etymology 
is sound in its foundations. The German w passes into 
the French g, as in werra, guerre, &c, and the Provencal 
gaigre keeps the medial g of weiger. 

Trop. Low Lat. troppus, from the O. H. Germ drupo. 

Presque, pres and que . 

SECTION V. 

ADVERBS OF AFFIRMATION AD NEGATION. 

These are six in number, 

Out, O. Fr. oil. In Old French the Latin pronoun hoc ■ 
became 0, the h disappearing as in orge, hordeum; or, hora; 
avoir, habere, &c. In the thirteenth century ' dire ni ni 



1 Salic Law, xviii. 1. 

2 As in the word unwtiger ( = not much). 



Ch. I. Sect. 5. ADVERBS. l6l 

non' was used to express 'neither yes nor no/ The Latin 
compound hoc-illud ( = 'that's the very thing') became 
o-il, the medial c disappearing, as it did from plicare, plier ; 
jocare, jouer, &c. To this oil, or hoc-illud, corresponded 
the Old French nen-il, non-illud, which became in Modern 
French nenni, just as o'il has become out 1 . 

Non, Lat. non. ' 

Ne, O. Fr. nen, Lat. non. 

Before going on to the prepositions we must take notice 
of a number of adverbial phrases which express negation 2 . 
To strengthen the expression of our judgments, we are wont 
to join an illustration or comparison to them (thus we say 
'as poor as Job/ 'as strong as a lion/ &c), or an expres- 
sion of value (as ' not worth a farthing.') So did the Latins : 
they would say a thing was not worth an as, a feather, a 
speck in a bean, hilum. Hence ne hilum, and nihil. 

'Nil igitur mors est, ad nos neque pertinet hilum! 

(Lucr. iii. 483.) 

There are six similar adverbial phrases to express a 
negative in French : 

1 . Pas, Lat. passus : ' ne point faire un pas! 

2. Point, Lat. punctuni: ' Je ne vois point! 



1 Some old-fashioned etymologists have tried to derive oui 
from the verb ou'ir (audire), past part, ow; but they have not 
seen, on the one side, that this past part, was always, in the 
middle ages, o'it (auditus) ; and, on the other side, that oui 
was always oil. To change / into / would have been a thing 
unheard of in the history of the language : and we may say at 
once that any derivation which pays no attention to the letters 
which are retained, changed, or thrown out, must be rejected. 
And, besides, the analogy between oil (hoc-illud) and nen-il 
(non-illud) would by itself alone prove the truth of the deriva-^ 
tion we have advanced — a derivation justified also by the strict 
rule of permutation of letters. 

2 See Schweighauser, De la negation dans les langues romanes, 
and Chevailet, iii. 330-340. 



l6l PARTICLES. Bkll.Pt. 3. 

3. Mie, Lat. mica (which signified a speck or grain). It 
became mie just as urtica became or tie; vesica, vessie; 
pica, pie, &c. Mie was used as a negation up to the end 
of the sixteenth century, as 'Je ne le vois mie'; and the 
Latin mica was used in the same way. So Martial (vii. 25) 
writes, ' Wullaque mica salis.' 

4. Goutte, Lat. gutta: also used negatively in Latin, as 
in Plautus : 

* Quoi neque parata gutta certi consilii.' 
This phrase, which formerly was in general use (so l ne 
CTaindre goutte,' ' Maimer goutte,' &c.) has been restricted since 
the seventeenth century to the two verbs voir and entendre : 
' n'y voir goutte,' ' riy entendre goutte.'' 

5. Per sonne, Lat. persona, with ne takes the sense of ' no 
one/ 

6. Rien, Lat. rem, was a substantive in Old French, with its 
original signification of 'thing'; so 'la riens que j'ai vue est 
fort belle/ and 'une tres-belle riens.' Joined with a nega- 
tive, it signifies ' no-thing,' just as ne . . . per sonne signifies 
'no one,' 'Je ne fais rien,' 'I am doing nothing.' This 
usage of rien is very proper, and it only abandoned its 
natural sense of 'thing' to take that of 'nothing' (as in the 
phrase 'on m'a donne* cela pour rien), after having been 
long used with ne to form a negative expression. This 
history of the word rien explains that passage of Moliere in 
which it is both negative and affirmative (Ecole des Femmes, 
ii. 2) : 

' Dans le siecle ou nous sommes 
On ne donne rien pour rien.' 

Finally, we may observe generally that at first these adver- 
bial phrases pas, mie, goutte, point, &c, were used in a sub- 
stantival sense, i.e. they were always used in comparison, 
and had a proper value of their own : ' Je ne marche pas,' 
' I do not move a step ' ; ' Je ne vois point,' ' I do not see a 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. PREPOSITIONS. 1 63 

bit' ; 'Je ne mange mie' 'I do not eat a scrap' ; ' Je ne bois 
goutie,' ' I do not drink a drop' ; &c., &c. 

CHAPTER II. 

PREPOSITIONS. 

The Latin prepositions have, for the most part, survived 
in French : though ab, cis, ex, erga, ob, prae, propter, and 
some others of less importance, have perished. 

Such new prepositions as have been formed by the French 
tongue are either (1) compounds of simple prepositions, as 
envers, in-versus ; encontre, in-contra ; dans, de-intus, &c. ; 
or (2) substantives, as chez, casa; or (3) present participles 
(or gerunds), as durant, pendant, moyennant, nonobstant, &c. 

SECTION I. 

PREPOSITIONS DRAWN FROM THE LATIN. 

These are ten in number : 

(1) A, ad; (2) entre, inter; (3) contre, contra; (4) en, 
in, whence en-droit, en-vers, en-contre, &c. ; (5) outre, ultra ; 
(6) par, per; (7) pour, O. Fr. por, Lat. pro (for this trans- 
position see above, p. 77); (8) sans, sine; (9) vers, ver- 
sus; (10) sur, O. Fr. sour, Lat. super; this form sour 
survives in sour-cil, supercilium. 

SECTION II. 

PREPOSITIONS FORMED FROM MORE THAN ONE LATIN 
PREPOSITION. 

These are four in number : 

1. Avant, ab-ante. Abante is not rare in inscriptions 1 . 
For the change of b into v see above, p. 60. 

1 We have a curious illustration of the use of this form in the 
old Roman grammarian Placidus. He strongly objects to this 

M 2 



164 PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. 

2. Devant, O. Fr. davant, compounded of <fe and avant, 
ab-ante. 

3. P«z>, post, has for its compounds de-puis, and puine; 
the latter in O. Fr. puis-ne', from the Lat. post-natus \ 

4. F<?r.r, versus, has for a compound en-vers. 

SECTION III. 

PREPOSITIONS FORMED FROM LATIN PREPOSITIONS COMBINED 
WITH ADVERBS, PRONOUNS, OR ADJECTIVES. 

i. Dans, O. Fr. dens. Lat. intus, which made ens in 
Old French, became de-intus in composition, whence O. Fr. 
dens, now dans. 

2. Derriere. Retro, O. Fr. riere (as in riere- fief, &c), 
became in composition arriere and derriere (ad-retro and 
de-retro). 

3. Sus, Lat. susum, often used for sursum, and to be 
found in Plautus, Cato, Tertullian, &c. So Augustine writes, 
'Jusum vis facere Deum, et te susum/ 'you wish to de- 
press God, and exalt yourself/ De-susum produced dessus. 
The simple sus survives in such phrases as ' courir sus' ' en 
sus,' &c. 

4. Dessous, i. e. de and sous; sous comes from the Lat. 
subtus. 

5. Dega, dela, from de ga and de la. 

6. Parmi, O. Fr. par-mi, from par, per, and mi, medium. 

7. Selon, O. Fr. sullonc, selonc, Lat. sublongum. 

8. Des, Lat. de-ex. 



vulgar v/ord, and warns his hearers against it — ' Ante me fugit 
dicimus, non Ab-ante me fugit ; nam praepositio praepositioni 
adjungitur imprudenter: quia ante et ab sunt duae praeposi- 
tiones.' (Glossae, in Mai, iii. 431.) 
1 [Gp. aine, from ante-natus.] 



Ch. 2. Sect. 5. PREPOSITIONS. 165 

SECTION IV. 
PREPOSITIONS WHICH ARE REALLY PARTICIPLES. 

Of these the chief are durant, pendant, suivant, touchant, 
nonobstant, joignant, moyennant, &c. 

In Old French the participle was often put before the 
noun to which it was related, in phrases in which it answered 
to the ablative absolute of the Latins; as in the passages 
' L'esclave fut jete* au feu, voyant le rot,' ' in the king's pre- 
sence/ vidente rege; 'Un des parties vient de mourir 
pendant le proces,' re pendente 1 . After the sixteenth cen- 
tury these inversions were no longer understood, and the 
French Academy, ignorant of the history of the language, 
treated these participles as prepositions. 

1. Durant, from durer. The French Academy decreed 
that ' sa vie durant ' was an inversion of the proper order of 
words; wrongly, for ' durant sa vie' is the real inversion. 

2. Moyennant, pres. part, of the old verb moyenner, ' to give 
means to one' : ' il e'chappa moyennant votre aide/ i. e. ' your 
help giving him the means of doing so/ 

3. Nonobstant, non obstante ; i. e. ' nothing hindering/ 

4. Pendant, from pendre : 'pendant 1'afTaire/ pendente re. 

SECTION V. 

PREPOSITIONS FORMED FROM SUBSTANTIVES. 

These are seven in number : 

1 . Chez. The Latin phrase in easa became in Old French 
en chez; and so in the thirteenth century one would have 
said ' il est en chez Gautier/ * est in easa Walterii/ In the 

1 See Chevallet, iii. 335. 



1 66 PARTICLES. 

fourteenth century the preposition en disappears, and we 
find the present usage, ' il est chez Gautier/ 

2. Faule, from the substantive faute. 

3. Vis-a-vis (visus-ad- visum, 'face to face'). In Old 
French vis signified what the Modern French visage does, 
' the face.' 

4. Malgre, O. Fr. in two words, mal gre; from mal, 
malum, and gre, gratum. It is therefore equivalent to 
mauvais grf. 

5. 6. A cause de and a cote de are formed by means of 
the substantives cause and cdte. 

SECTION VI. 

PREPOSITIONS FORMED FROM ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS. 

i. Hors. See p. 66. 

2. Hormis, O. Fr. hors-mis, i. e. = mis hors, Lat. foris 
missus. In this Old French phrase the participle mis used 
to be declinable. Thus in the thirteenth century people 
said, 'Cet homme a perdu tous ses enfants, hors mise sa fille/ 
In the fifteenth century the participle mis became inseparably 
fixed to the particle hors, and in course of time the phrase 
hors-mis y hormis, became a preposition. 

3. Rez, Lat. rasus. In Old French rez. or ras was equi- 
valent to ras/, shorn. 'Avoir les cheveux ras 9 ; 'a ras de 
terre/ i. e. on the smooth-shorn level of the ground ; so 
1 rez de chausseV is the floor of a house which is 'au ras* 
i. e. on the level of the road. 

4. Lez, Lat. latus. In Low Latin latus was used as = 
juxta, ' near' : ' Plexitium latus Turonem/ Plessis-^z-Tours, 
i. e. near Tours ; so Passy-/<?£-Paris, Champigny-/<?z-Langres. 
In Old French lez was a substantive : ' Le roi est sur trone, 
et son fils a son lez (at his side, ad suum latus). 

5. Jusque, Lat. deusque. See p. 66. 

6. 7. Void, voila, O. Fr. voi-ci, voi-la; from the imperative 



Ch. 3. Sect. 1. CONJUNCTIONS. 167 

of voir and the adverbs ci and la. Consequently separable 
in Old French, as in l voi me la (now 'me voila'). In the 
sixteenth century we still find Rabelais saying ' voy me ci 
pr£t.' The French Academy, ignorant of the meaning of 
this phrase, decreed that void, voila were prepositions, and 
therefore inseparable. 

SECTION VII. 

PREPOSITIONS COMPOUNDED OF THE ARTICLE AND A PRE- 
POSITION WHICH STANDS FOR A SUBSTANTIVE. 

Au dedans, au dehors, au dela, au-dessous, aupres, au-devant, 
au tr avers. 

SECTION VIII. 

PREPOSITIONS COMPOUNDED OF A SUBSTANTIVE OR AN 
ADJECTIVE, PRECEDED BY THE ARTICLE. 

Au lieu, au milieu, au moyen, le long, autour, au has, du 
haul, &c. 

CHAPTER III. 

CONJUNCTIONS. 

We will take them in this order: (1) simple conjunctions, 
which come from Latin conjunctions, as car, quare, &c. ; 
(2) conjunctions formed from Latin particles, as aussi, aliud 
sic, &c. ; (3) conjunctival phrases, formed by adding the 
conjunction que to certain particles, as tandis que] quoi- 
que, &c. 

SECTION I. 

SIMPLE CONJUNCTIONS. 

These are eleven in number : 

1. Car, Lat. quare. In Old French this word retained its 
original sense of pourquoi, ' why.' In the thirteenth century 
men said ' Je ne sais ni car ni comment,' ' I know neither 
why nor how/ 



1 68 PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. 

2. Comme, O. Fr. cume, Lat. quomodo. 

3. Done, Lat. tunc. 

4. _£V, Lat. et. 

5. Ou, O. Fr. 0, Lat. aut. For the change of au into 0, 
see p. 51. 

6. Quand, Lat. quando. 

7. @«*, O. Fr. qued, Lat. quod. 

8. Mais, Lat. magis : formerly bore the sense of plus, 
' more' — a sense retained in the phrase ' je n'en peux mat's,' 
1 1 can do no more/ and in the old adverb desormais, see 

P- W 

9. JVi, O. Fr. ne, Lat. nee. In Moliere even we find 
' ne plus/ ' ne moins/ 

10. Or, Lat. hora, signified 'now' in Old French. ' Or, 
dites-moi/ &c. 

11. Si, Lat. si. Compound si-non. In Old French the 
two particles were separable : ' Je verrai, si lui-meme non, 
au moins son frere.' 

SECTION II. 

COMPOUND CONJUNCTIONS. 

These are ten in number : 

1. Ainsi, O. Fr. asi. Origin unknown. 

2. Aussi, O. Fr. alsi, Lat. aliud sic. 

3. Cependant, from ce and pendant, literally = pendant cela: 
' Nous nous amusons, et ce pendant la nuit vient/ 

4. Encore, O. Fr. ancore, Lat. nanc horam (Ital. anc-ora). 
See p. 156. 

5. Lorsque; tors and que. For /flrj, see p. 157. This 
word may even now be broken up, as ' tors meme que! 

6. Neanmoins, O. Fr. neant-moins, from niant and ffwz'/w. 
Neant, Lat. nec-entem, * literally = ' nothing/ Thus used by 
La Fontaine : — 



Ch-4- INTERJECTIONS. 1 69 

' Car j'ai maints chapitres vus 
Qui pour neant se sont terms.' 

Ne'an-moins, is equivalent to ' ne pas moins/ ' none the less' : 
' II est fort jeune, et neanmoins serieux/ i. e. ' none the less 
for that.' 

7. Plutot, from plus and tot. See p. 156. 

8. Puisque; puis and que. See p. 164. 

9. Quoique; quoi and que. Seep. 114. 

10. Toute fois, Lat. totam vicem. See p. 59. 

SECTION III. 

CONJUNCTIVAL PHRASES. 

These are formed by the help of (1) adverbs — tandis, 
alors, sitot, aussitot, tant, Men, encore, afin, followed by the 
conjunction que; (2) prepositions — sans, des, Jusqu'ace, 
apres, avant, also all followed by que. The etymology of 
these words will be found in their proper places above. 

CHAPTEE IV. 
INTERJECTIONS. 

If we set aside such exclamations as paixl courage! &c, 
which are elliptical propositions, (faites) paix ! (ayez) 
courage! &c, rather than interjections properly so called, 
there will remain but little to be said on this subject: for 
real interjections are fundamentally common to the speech 
of all nations (as oh! ah! &c). Two alone, helas and 
dame, have (as far as form goes) a real philological interest. 

Helas, written in Old French hi! las ! is composed of the 
interjection he ! and the adjective las, lassus ( = unhappy). 
In the thirteenth century we have ' Cette mere est lasse de la 
mort de son fils.' ' He ! las ! que je suis !' ' ah ! sad that I 
am ! ' = woe is me ! In the fifteenth century the two words 



1 70 PARTICLES. Bk. II. Pt. 3. Ch. 4. 

were joined together in the inseparable Mas ! At the same 
time las lost all its primitive significance, and passed from 
the sense of sorrow to that of fatigue, as also happened in 
the cases of gene and ennui, which at first meant ' vexation' 
and ' hatred.' 

Dame! Lat. Domine-Deus, or Domne-Deus, became in 
Old French Dame-JDieu, a phrase to be found perpetually in 
MSS. of the middle ages : \ Dame-Dieu nous aide.' Dame- 
Dieu, first used as a subjective case, came afterwards to be 
used as an interjection, and was thence shortened into 
Dame by itself. 



BOOK III. 

ON THE FORMATION OF WORDS. 

By the word ' affixes ' we mean whatever parts of words 
are added to the root with a view to modifying its meaning. 
Thus, given the root ' form/ we produce from it the words 
' in-form-ation,' ' re-form- ation,' &c, where in-, re-, -Hon 
are affixes (' affixa,' fixed on to a root). We call them 
prefixes if they are put before the root {re- in the word 
' reform ') ; suffixes if they follow after it {-Hon in the word 
' reformation '). 

Prefixes, when joined to roots form compound words; 
suffixes form derivatives. We will take these in order; in 
other words, will review first all prefixes, and then all 
suffixes. 



IJ2 COMPOUND WORDS. Bk. III. 

CHAPTER I. 

COMPOUND WORDS. 

We must distinguish between the composition (i) of 
nouns, (2) of adjectives, (3) of verbs, (4) of particles, the 
most numerous and important of all. And we must also 
consider the prefixes from two points— that of their origin, 
and that of their form. 

1. As to their origin. They may be either Latin in 
origin, as re-m'er, de'-lier, from re-negare, de-ligare ; or 
French in origin, that is to say, created on the model of 
Latin prefixes, as in the case of re-change, but having no 
corresponding word from which they come. 

2. As to form. Here it is especially necessary (as also 
in the study of derivatives) to distinguish clearly between 
the two classes of words which make up the French lan- 
guage (see above, Introduction, II, i-iv) ; namely, such 
compounds as sour-cil (super-cilium), or sur-vemr (super- 
venire), which have been formed by the people ; and on 
the other hand, such as super-iorite, or super-fe'tation, which 
have been constructed by the learned. 

SECTION I. 

OF THE ACCENT ON COMPOUNDS. 

In the case of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, the compound 
word is accented in the ordinary way, as or-fevre (auri- 
faber), aub-e'pine (alba-spina), main-tenir (manu-tenere), 
because these words are so closely attached to one another 
that they have entirely lost their separate existence. 

In treating of the composition of particles (such as the 
de-, re-, in deputare, reputare, deputer, re'puter) it is needful, 
if we would explain the part played by the Latin accent, to 
distinguish between Latin compounds which have come down 



Ch. i . Sect, i . A CCENTUA TION OF COMPOUNDS. I J 3 

into French, and compounds constructed by the French 
themselves. 

§ 1. Latin Compounds which have come down into French. 

' In the case of most words borrowed from the Latin, their 
primitive condition as compounds has been lost sight of, and 
the French language has treated them as simple words. 
The result has been that, as the accent often lay on the 
determining or emphatic particle, the word which followed it 
has been destroyed or so contracted as to become utterly 
indistinguishable, while the particle itself has lost its original 
sense : so sarcophagus came to O. Fr. sarqueu, Fr. cercueil; 
trifolium, became trefle; colloco, couche ; consuo, couds. 
But, in many words, the French language has wished to 
express both the force of the determining particle, and also 
that of the word following it. To accomplish this, in the 
case of words which would naturally (through the position 
of the accent), have lost their form, like those we have just 
mentioned, the accent was thrown forward a syllable, and 
the word following the determining syllable received it, just 
as if it had never been a compound at all : thus e-levo 
became e-levo, whence eleve; re-nego, re-nego, Fr. renie; 
com-pater, com-pater, Fr. compere , &c. This shifting of the 
accent, caused by the importance of the sense of the latter 
part of these compounds, took place no doubt in the time 
of the ' Rustic Latin,' and before the formation of French. 
It was a good plan for bringing out the force of simple 
words, which had almost perished when in composition, 
for words regularly formed did not retain a single trace 
of them 1 .' 

§ 2. Compounds constructed by the French language. 
'It was natural that in these cases the second method 

1 G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 82. 



174 COMPOUND WORDS. Bk. III. 

of accentuation alone should be employed : no one thought 
of throwing back on the determining (or emphatic) particle 
the accent belonging to the word joined to it, in those cases 
in which it certainly would have been thrown back had the 
words been combined in the Latin. These compound words 
were then formed either by uniting particles of Latin origin 
to words to which they had never been joined in Latin ; or 
by prefixing to Latin or French words Latin or French par- 
ticles which had not been used in composition in Latin: 
as archi-duc, vi-comte (vice-comes) ; en (from inde), as en- 
leve, en-fuis, en-voie, &c. ; sous (from subtus) as sou-leve, 
sous-trais 1 , &c.' 

SECTION II. 

WORDS COMPOUNDED OF NOUNS. 

Of compounds formed by means of nouns, there are 
three classes : — I. The combination of two substantives ; 
II. Of a substantive with an adjective ; III. Of a substantive 
with a verb. 

I. Of two substantives : such are — oripeau, auri-pellem ; 
orfevre, auri-faber ; oriflamme, auri-flamma ; usufruit, usus- 
fructus; be tie-rave, betta-rapa; pierre-ponce, petra-pumex; 
conne'table, comes stabuli ; salpetre, sal petrae ; ban-lieu, 
banni-locus ; mappemonde, mappa mundi. So the names of 
days are formed : Lundi, lunae-dies ; Mardi, Martis-dies, 
&c. So also proper names : as Port- Vendres, Portus- Veneris ; 
Dampierre, Dominus Petrus ; Abbeville, Abbatis- villa ; 
Chdtelherault, Castellum Eraldi ; Finisterre, Finis-terrae ; 
Montmartre, Mons-Martyrum; Fontevrault,'Fon.tem.1jVYsl6i. 

II. Compounded of a substantive and an adjective. 

i. Substantive first : banque-route, banca-rupta 2 ; courte- 

1 G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 83. 

2 For this word see above, p. 141. 



Ch. i. Sect. 3. NOUNS, ADJECTIVES. 175 

pointe, culcita-puneta; raifort, radix-fortis; zinaigre, vinum- 
acre ; rosmarin, ros-marinus ; r/publique, res-publica. We 
may here add the compound embonpoint [en-bon-point), to 
which the Old French had a corresponding enmalpoint; 
and also cer'ain proper names, as Roquefort and Rochefort, 
Rocca-fortis ; Chdteau-Roux, Forcalquier, Forum Calca- 
rium ; Vaucluse, Vallis Clusa, &c. 

ii. Adjective first : aubipine, alba spina ; bonheur, 
bonum-augurium * ; malheur, malum-augurium ; chauve- 
souris ; mal-aise ; bien-aise. Also mi, from medius, in the 
following words : — Mi-di, media dies ; mi-nuit, media 
nocte ; mi-lieu, medius locus ; mi-septembre, &c. ; printemps, 
primum tempus ; prud'homme, prudens homo ; vifargent, 
vivnm argentum ; sauf -conduit, salvum conduetum ; quint- 
essence, quinta essentia ; primevere, prima vera. Proper 
names : Courbevoie, Curva via ; Clermont, Clarus Mons ; 
Chaumont, Calvus Mons ; Haute-feuille, Haute-rive. 

III. Compounded of a substantive and a verb : main- 
tenir, manu-tenere ; colporter, collo portare ; saupoudrer, 
(O. Fr. sau, sel, remains in saunter, salinarius) ; ver- 
moulu • bouleverser ; licou, ligare collem ; faineant, facere 
necentem * ; crucifier, cruci-ficare. 

SECTION III. 

WORDS COMPOUNDED OF ADJECTIVES. 

I. Of two adjectives : clair-voyant, mort-ne, nouveau-ne, 
aigre-doux, clair-obscur , &c. 

1 Bon-heur, mal-heur, O. Fr. bon-eur, mal-eur. Eur meant 

1 chance,' ' presage,' and was always a dissyllable : it comes from 

au(g)urium, whence ailr (twelfth century), later e'ur. Those 

j writers who have derived this -heur from hora are wrong, 

j because hora could only produce (and has only produced) a 

1 monosyllable, heure, with a final e answering to the a of hora : 

1 e'ur, ailr being dissyllables, and ending with a consonant, could 

not have come from hora. 



Ij6 COMPOUND WORDS. Bk. III. 

II. Of an adjective with a verb. The Latin -ficare be- 
comes -fier in French, and enters into numerous compounds, 
some direct from the Latin, like puri-ficare, purifier ; 
others, created on the same plan, but without Latin cor- 
respondents, ramifier, ratifier, bonifier, &c. 

SECTION IV. 

WORDS COMPOUNDED OF VERBS. 

I. Of two verbs, or two verbal roots : chauffer, cale- 
ficare ; lique'fier, lique-fieare ; stupejier, stupe-ficare, &c. 

II. Of an adjective with a verb. See above, Sect. Ill, ii. 

III. Of a verb and a noun. Add to the examples given 
above (Sect. II, III), edifier, aedi-ficare ; pacifier, paci- 
ficare ; versifier, versi-ficare, &c. 

SECTION V. 

WORDS MADE FROM PHRASES. 

In those compound words which are really phrases, the 
accent lies on the last syllable (though they often have a 
half-accent, which is commonly neglected) : vaurien (vaut- 
rieri), faineant (fait-neant) , couvre-chef, va-et-vient, hochequeue, 
licou (lie-cou), tourne-sol, vol-au-vent, passe-avant, &c. The 
word be'gueule (O. Fr. be'e-gueule) is formed from bee, ' open/ 
past participle of the old verb b/er or bayer (which survives 
in the phrase, ' bayer aux corneilles '), and gueule, gula. 
Be'gueule thus signifies 'one who keeps his mouth open' — f> 
mark of wonder and folly. The word be'e is still used for r 
the sluice of a water-mill. 

SECTION VI. 

WORDS COMPOUNDED WITH PARTICLES. 

These will be taken in the following order: — i. Preposi- 
tional particles ; 2. Qualitative; 3. Quantitative ; 4. Negative. 



Ch. i . Sect. 6. PA R TICLES. 1 7 7 

§ 1. Prepositional Particles. 

These are thirty in number : 

1. Ab, Fr. a, av. This particle, which carries with it the 
notion of movement away, furnishes very many compounds : 
avant, ab-ante ; avorter, ab-ortare * \ &c. 

2. Ad, Fr. a. In Latin ad gives to the root the sense 
of drawing together, and thence of augmentation : averlir, 
ad-vertere ; arriver, ad-ripare 2 , &c. New compounds are: 
achever (from a chef, i. e. = a bout, ' to the end.' In Old 
French the phrase ran, ' venir a. chef = ' venir a. bout '), 
accoucher, abaisser, av/rer, affut (from a and fill, Latin 
fustis), appdt, affaire (a /aire), &c. 

3. Ante, Fr. ans, ains. The Latin ante-natus became 
ains-ne' in the French of the twelfth century, ais-ne in the 
fifteenth, aine'm the seventeenth. The corresponding word 
is post natus, O.Fr. puis-nf, now puine' 3 . 

The compound ab-ante, Fr. avant, acts as prefix to very 
many words; as av ant-bras, av ant-scene, avant-garde, &c. 
See above, p. 163. 

4. 'Avtl, Fr. anli. This prefix, which must not be con- 
founded with ante, indicates opposition 4 , as anlipode, anti- 
pathie, antichrist. 

5. Cum, Fr. co, com, con. Cailler (O. Fr. coaillier), coagu- 
lare (see above, p. 71); couvrir t co-operire; corresponds, 
eon-respondere. New compounds are complot, compagnon, 

1 Learned words are ab-juration, ab-ject, ab-latif, &c. 

2 Learned words are ad-judication, ad-ministration, ad-orer, &c. 

3 Learned words are ante-dilwvien, afiti-dater, anti-ciper, &c. 

4 We pass by the modern prefixes o^echnical words derived 
from Greek, such as ana-, ava, as in wfa-logie ; epi-, eVt, as in 
epi-graphie ; hyper-, vrrep, as in hyper-trophie. Their etymology 
offers no difficulties or peculiarities. 'Ai/rl stands in the text 
(although it has no right there, being solely a learned prefix), 
that there may be no confusion between it and ante. 



178 COMPOUND WORDS. Bk. III. 

(from cum and panis, ' who eats bread with one '). The Low 
Latin word was, in the nominative, companio, whence O. Fr. 
compain ; and in the accusative, companionem ; whence 
Fr. compagnon. 

6. Contra, Fr. contre. Contreseing, contra-signum; contre- 
poids, contre-faire, contre-bande, controle = contre-role 1 . 

7. D3, Fr. de, de. De'choir, declarer, demander, devenir, 
de'gre, de'laisser, dessiner, &c. 

8. Dis, di, Fr. d/, de's. Deluge, diluviuni ; dependre, dis- 
pendere ; deplaire, displaeere 2 . New compounds are 
des-agreable, de's-honneur ; &c. 

9. E, ex, Fr. e, es. Essoufler, ex-sufflare ; essuyer, ex- 
sueeare ; essai'm, ex-amen 3 , &c. New compounds are 
effacer, ebahir, e'chapper, &c. 

10. Foris, foras, Fr. for, four. Forfait, foris-faetum ; 
fourvoyer, foris-viare. Foris having produced hors, foris- 

missum became hormis {hors-mis). See above, p. 66. 

11. In, Fr. en, em. Ensemble (O. Fr. ensemle), in- 
simul ; enfler, in-flare ; encourir, in-currere ; emplir, im- 
plere ; empreindre, im-primere. New compounds are en- 
gager, enrichir, embusquer, empirer 4 , &c. 

12. Inde, Fr. en, em. Envoy er (O. Fr. entvoyer), 
inde-viare. For the change from inde to ent, see above, 
p. in. 

13. Inter, Fr. entre. Entre-voir, enf re-sol, enlre-tien 5 , &c. 

14. Per, Fr. par. Parfait, perfectus ; parvenir, per- 
venire ; parmi, per-medium. New compounds are par- 

fumer, pardonner, &c. 

The Latins used the particle per to mark the highest 

1 Learned woras are contra-diction, &c. 

2 Learned words are dis-cerner, dis-credit, &c. 

3 Learned words are ex-cursion, ex-tenuer, &c. 
* Learned words are in-cursion, in-time, &c. 

5 Learned words are inter-preter, inter-venir, &c. 



Ch. i , Sect. 6. PAR TICLES. 1 7 9 

degree of intensity: per-horridus, per-gratus, per-gracilis, 
&c. So in French, par-achever, par -/aire 1 , &c. 

15. Post, Fr. puis. Puine (O. Fr. puis-ne), post- 
natus. (See above, No. 3, Ante.) Such words as post-dater, 
posi-hume, &c, are modern. 

16. Prae, Fr. pre. Pre'cher, praedicare; prevoir, pre- 
server, pre'tendre, &c. 

17. Pro, Fr. por, pour. Pour-suivre, pour-chasser ; por- 
trait, pro-tractus. 

18. Re, Fr. re, re, r. Re'duire, re-ducere ; re'pondre, re- 
cueillir, re-eolligere, &c. New compounds are rebuter 
{but), rehausser (hauf), rajeunir (Jeune), renverser (envers), 
de-re-chef, &c. 

19. Retro, Fr. riere. In Old French retro made riere 
(like petra, pierre) ; this form remains in arriere, ad-retro, 
a prefix found in such compounds as arriere-ban, arriere- 
boutique, arriere-neveu, &c. [So too derriere, de-retro.] Re'tro- 
actif, re'tro-cession, &c, are modern words. 

20. Se, Fr. se\ Se'duire, seducere ; se'vrer, separare, &c. 

21. Sub, Fr. se, su, sou, sous. Sourire, sub-ridere; se- 
courir, suc-currere ; souvenir, sub- venire. New compound, 
sojourner (Jour). 

22. Subtus, Fr. sou, sous. Sous-traire, subtus-trahere ; 
sous-entendu, subtus-intendere. New compounds are sous- 
diacre, sous-lieutenant, souterrain. 

23. Super, Fr. sur, sour. Survenir, super-venire ; sourcil, 
super-eilium ; surnommer, super-nominare. New com- 
pounds are sur-saut, sur-humain, sur-face, sur-tout. 

The words soubre-saut 2 , super-saltum ; and subre-c -argue, 



1 In Old French this particle was separable. Thus par sage 
= tres sage) might be written in two parts, as ' tant par est sage ' 
= 'tant il est parsage'). Similarly one may still say ' G'est par 

I trop /or/.' 

2 Our ' summerset.' 



N 2 



l8o COMPOUND WORDS. Bk. III. 

super-carrica (the proper French forms are sursaut, and 
surcharge), are of Spanish origin. 

24. Trans, Fr. tre, tra. Traverser, transversare ; traduire, 
trans-ducere, &c. New compounds are tre'pas, trans- 
passus; tressaillir, trans-salire 1 , &c. 

25. Ultra, Fr. outre. Outre-passer, outre-cuidance, outre- 
?ner, &c. Such words as ultra-montain, &c, are modern. 

26. Vice, Fr. vi. Vicomte, vice-comitem ; vidame, vice- 
dominus. Modern words are vice-roi, vice-consul, &c. 

§ 2. Qualitative Particles. 

These are four in number : 

1. Bene, Fr. bien. Bien-fait, bene- factum ; bien-heureux, 
bien-venu, &c. 

2. Male, Fr. mal, mau. Mal-mener, mal-minare ; mal- 
iraiter, male-tractare ; mau-dire, male-dicere ; maussade, 
male-sapidus 2 ; malade, male-aptus (see above, p. 76); 
malsain, male-sanus. 

3. Minus, Fr. mes, me'. Me'dire, mefaire, me'prendre, me'fier, 
mesestimer 3 , &c. 

4. Magis, Fr. mais. From this word the conjunction 
mat's is derived, though the French plus has taken the proper 
sense of the Latin magis : the old use remains in the one 
phrase, ' n'en pouvoir mais' 



1 Modern words : trans- cription, trans-port, &c. 

2 Sapidus, O. Fr. sade ; whence male-sapidus, maussade. 

3 This prefix mes, me, does not come from the German miss, 
as has been thought, but from the Latin minus — an etymology 
confirmed by the old form of the French prefix, as well as by its 
form in the other Romance languages. Thus the Latin minus- 
pretiare becomes menos-preciar in Spanish, menos-prezar in 
Portuguese, mens-prezar in Proven5al, and mes-priser or me-priser 
in French. 



Ch. 2. PARTICLES. I»l 

§ 3. Quantitative Particles. 

1. Bis, Fr. be', hi. Bevue, whose proper sense is = double- 
vue. Learned words, compounded with bis, keep the Latin 
form. So biscuit, bis-coctus ; bis-a'ieul, bis-aviolus ; bis- 
cornu, bis-cornu, &c. 

2. Medius, Fr. mi. Mi-di, media-die; mi-nuit, media- 
nocte ; mi-lieu, medio-loeo ; mi-janvier, mi-car$me, &c. 
From dimidium we get demi ; so parmi, per medium. 

§ 4. Negative Particles. 

1. K"on, Fr. non. Non-par eil, non-chaloir (whose present 
participle exists, nonchalant — a compound of chaloir, which 
has been discussed above, p. 147). 

2. In, Fr. en. En-fant, in-fantem. The learned form 
is in : in-utile, in-decis. 



CHAPTER II. 

ON SUFFIXES OR TERMINATIONS. 

Suffixes, like prefixes, ought to be considered in their 
origin and their form. 

1. As to their origin. They may be either (1) of Latin 
origin, as prem-ier from prim-arius; (2) of French origin, 
that is, built on the lines of the Latin suffixes (as encr-ier 
from French encre), but having no corresponding Latin 
words. 

2. As to form. We must carefully distinguish between 
suffixes formed by the learned, and those formed by the 
people : between such as prim-aire, se'cul-aire, scol-aire, which 
are of the former kind, and such as prem-ier, prim-arius; 
secul-ier, saecul-aris ; ecol-ier, sehol-aris, which are of the 
latter description. 



182 DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

SECTION I. 
OF THE ACCENTUATION OF DERIVED WORDS. 

Latin suffixes may be classed under two heads : the 
accentuated, as mort-alis, hum-anus, vulg-aris, &c. ; and 
the unaccented or atonies, as as-inus, port-ieus, mob-ilis. 

The accented Latin suffixes are retained in the French, 
as mort-el, hum-ain, vulg-aire. These suffixes (el, ain, aire) 
are further employed in French to produce fresh derived 
words, by attaching them to words which were without them 
in Latin: thus have been formed such words as visu-el, 
loint-ain, visionn-aire, derivatives constructed for the first 
time by the French language. 

Atonic Latin suffixes, like as-inus, port-ieus, jud-icem, are 
all shortened as they pass into the French language 1 , following 
therein the natural law of accent (as explained above, p. 69). 
So as-inus produced dne ; port-ieus, porche ; jud-icem, 
jitge. Consequently no subsequent derivatives could be 
formed from these weak suffixes : it was not till a later 
period that the learned, ignorant of the part played by the 
Latin accent in forming French terminations, foolishly copied 
the Latin form, but gave it a false accent, displacing it from 
its proper syllable. Then came up such words as portique, 
portieus ; mobile, mobilis ; fragile, fragilis 2 ; words formed 
in opposition to the genius of the French language, bar- 
barous words, neither Latin nor French, which violate the 
laws of accentuation of both. 



1 By the French language must be understood the collection 
of all wo*-ds of unconscious and popular formation, as opposed 
to learned words introduced consciously into the language. 

2 Old French, which always observed the law of the accent, 
said, porche, portieus ; meuble, mobilis ; frele, fragilis ; instead 
of portique, mobile, fragile. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. NOMINAL SUFFIXES. lb'3 

French suffixes are to be distinguished into nominal (sub- 
stantives and adjectives) and verbal. In each of these classes 
we will study successively the suffixes which are accented in 
Latin, and those which are not ; carefully and rigidly exclud- 
ing every word which has crept into the language since its 
proper formation. 

SECTION II. 

NOMINAL SUFFIXES. 

§ i . Suffixes accented in Latin. 

Alis, Fr. el, al. Mort-el, mort-alis ; chept-el, capit-ale ; 
hot-el, hospit-ale ; roy-al, reg-alis ; loy-al, leg-alis \ 

Amen, Fr. aim, ain, en. Air-ain, aer-amen; lev-ain, lev- 
amen ; ess-aim, ex-amen ; li-en, lig-amen. 

I-men. No word with this termination has entered into 
French. 

U-men, Fr. on. Bet-on, bit-umen 2 . 

Antia, Fr. ance. Repugn-ance, repugn-antia. French 
derivatives 3 , nu-ance, se-ance, &c. 

Andus, endus, Fr. ande, ende. Vi-ande, viv-6nda; prov- 
ende, provid-6nda; leg-ende, leg-enda. French derivatives, 
off r -ande, re'prim-ande, jur-ande, &c. 

Antem, Fr. ant, and; entem, Fr. ent. March-and, mere- 
antem ; am-ant, am-antem. Mech-ant (O. Fr. mesch/ant, par- 
ticiple of the verb mescheoir, see above, p. 148) comes 



1 The learned language has kept al for this suffix ; as in hopit- 
al, ndt-al, capit-al. 

2 Learned forms are -amen, ex-amen; -imen into -ime, reg- 
ime, reg-imen ; cr-ime, cr-imen ; -umen into ume ; bit-ume, 
bit-umen ; leg-ume, leg-umen ; 'volume, vol-umen. 

3 By ' French derivatives ' are meant derivatives which are 
formed first-hand by the French language, and have no words 
corresponding to them in Latin. 



184 DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

from m/s = minus (see p. 180), and the verb che'oir, cadere : 
thus mechant represents the Latin minus-cadentem ; serg- 
ent, servi-entem ; /che-ant, ex-cad-entem. 

Anus, Fr. ain. Aub-ain, alb-anus ; cert-ain, cert-anus * ; 
rom-ain, rom-anus; hum-am, hum-anus. Anus becomes 
en, ien, after a vowel, or when the medial consonant falls 
out ; as chret-ien, christ-ianus ; anc-ien, anc-ianus*; pai-en, 
pa[g]-anus ; doy-en, de[c]-anus. French derivatives are 
haut, hautain ; chapelle, chapelain, &c. x 

Enus, ena, Fr. ein, in, oin, ene. Ven-in, ven-enum; av- 
oine, av-ena ; ch-aine, (O. Fr. cha'e'ne), cat-ena. 

Ardus, Fr. ard. The German suffix -hart, Low Lat. 
-ardus, which indicates intensity, has furnished the French 
language with a very considerable number of derivatives, 
as pleur-ard, fuy-ard, &c. 

Aris, arius, Fr. er, ier. Prem-ier, prim-arius ; secul-ier, 
saeeul-aris; gren-ier, gran-arium ; e'cuyer, scut-arius; riv- 
iere, rip-aria ; ecol-ier, schol-aris ; sangl-ier, singul-aris, sc. 
porcus ; fum-ier, fim-arium. New derivatives, plen-ier, 
{plein); barr-iere (barre), &c. 2 

The suffix -ier, perhaps the most fertile in the language, 
has formed a number of derivatives which had no existence 
in Latin. It most frequently designates (1) names of trades, 
as boutiqu-ier, poi-ier, batei-ier, vigu-ier, &c. ; (2) objects in 
daily use, as sabl-ier, encr-ier, fo-yer, &c. ; and (3) names 
of trees, as poir-ier, pomm-ier, peupl-ier, laur-ier, figu-ier, 
&c. 

Atus, Fr. i; ata, Fr. &. Aim-/, am-atus; avou-e\ ad- 



1 Learned form, -an : pl-an, pl-anus ; veter-an, veter-anus ; 
&c. As to such words as courtis-an, &c, they come from the 
Italian (cortigiano, &c), and date from the sixteenth century. 

2 Learned form -aire : scol-aire, schol-aris ; secul-aire, saecul- 
aris ; calc-aire, calc-arium. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. NOMINAL SUFFIXES. 1 85 

voc-atus; duck-/, duc-atus; Mch-/ 3 episcop-atus ; che- 
vauch-ee, caballic-ata ; aim-fa, am-ata, &c. 

Certain derivatives in -ade, as eslrap-ade, cavalc-ade, eslr- 
ade, estac-ade, &c, come from the Italian. The French form 
would naturally have been -e'e, as is seen in cavalcade and 
chevauch-ee ; estrade and estr-ee, strata; escapade (It. scap- 
pata), and echapp-e'e \ 

At-icus is a suffix formed with Icus (see p. 189), Fr. age. 
Voy-age (O. Fr. viat-ge), vi-atieum; from-age, form- aticum ; 
vol-age, vol-aticum; ombr-age, umbr-aticum ; ram-age, ram- 
aticum; mess-age, miss-aticum; sauv-age, silv-atieus 2 . 

Hence come French derivatives : mesur-age, labour-age, 
alli-age, arros-age, &c. It has been said that these words 
come from a Low Latin suffix in -agium (as message from 
mess-agium, hom-age from hom-agium). But though mess- 
agium certainly exists, it is far from being the parent of 
the Fr. message; on the contrary, it is nothing but the 
Fr. message, latinised by the clergy, at a time when no one 
knew either the origin of the word (missaticum) or the 
nature of the suffix which formed it. 

Aster, Fr. aire. This suffix, which gives to the root the 
further sense of depreciation, has produced numerous French 
derivatives unknown to the Latin, as bell-dire, douce-dtre, 
gentil-dtre, opini-dtre, mar-dire, par-dire, &c. 

Aeem, Fr. at. Vr-ai, ver-aeem; ni-ais, nid-acem, &c. 
The learned form is -ace : ten-ace, rap-ace, viv-ace, &c. 

1 Learned form, -at: wvoc-at, avoe-atus; consul-at, consul- 
atus ; episcop-at, &c 

2 Silva in Old French became sel*ve, sawve, which, as a common 
noun, is lost, but survives in certain names of places, as sawve- ' 
Saint-Benoit, silva-S.-Benedieti. From silva came silvaticus, 
whence sawv-age, O. Fr. selvatge. Nothing but a complete mis- 
understanding or ignorance of the laws of the formation of the 
French language could have ever allowed people to derive 
sawvage from solivagus. This word could only have produced 
in French the form seulige. 



1 86 DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

Ela, Fr. elle. Chand-elle, cand-ela; quer-elle, quer-ela; 
lut-elle, tut-ela, &c. 

Elis, Fr. el, al. Cru-el, crud-elis ; fe-al, fid-elis. 

Ellus, Fr. el, eau. Jum-eau, gemellus; b-eau, b-ellus, 
&c. 

Ensis, Fr. ois, ais, is. Such Latin derivatives as for-ensis, 
hort-ensis, nemor-ensis, have given no words to the French, 
which has used this termination only for words of modern 
formation, such as court-ois, bourg-eois, tyarn-ois, marqu-is, 
&c. ; or for proper names, as Orlean-ais, Aurelian-ensis, 
Carthagin-ois, Carthagini-ensis, &c. 

Ecem, from ex, Fr. is. Breb-is, verv-ecem. 

Icem, Fr. is, ix, isse. Perdr-ix, perd-icem ; gen-is se, 
jun-icem. 

Estus, Fr. ete. Honn-ete, hon-estus, &c. 

Ista, Fr. isle. A suffix very common in French : drogu- 
isle, e'ben-isle, &c. 

Erna, Fr. erne. Cit-eme, cist-erna ; lanl-erne, lant-erna ; 
lav-erne, tab-6rna. 

Etum, Fr. ay, aie. Derivatives with this termination in 
Latin indicated a place, or district, planted with trees. 
Though masc. in Latin, they became fern, in French : aun- 
aie, aln-§tum ; orm-aie, ulm-etum ; sauss-aie, salie-etum. 
Hence such proper names as Chaten-ay, Casten-etum ; 
Rouvr-ay, B,obor-6tum; Auln-ay, A In -etum, &c. French 
derivatives are chen-aie {chene) ; houss-aie Qioux) ; chdtaigner- 
aie, (chdlaignier) ; roser-aie {rosier), &c. 

# Ilis, Fr. il. Puer-il, genl-il, &c. The suffix -ilis is joined 
only to nouns and adverbs ; ilis only to verbs. 

Ignus, Fr. in, ain. Ben-in, ben-ignus ; mal-in, mal-ignus ; 
de'd-ain, disd-ignum*, &c. 

Inus, Fr. in. Dev-in, div-inus; peler-in, peregr-inus; 
vois-in, vic-inus, &c. French derivatives are mul-in, bad-in, 
cristall-in. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. NOMINAL SUFFIXES. J 8 7 

Iolus, eolus, compound suffixes (for olus, see p. 190), 
which were dissyllabic (id, eo) in Latin, were contracted into 
a long penultimate in the seventh century, io, eo, thence- 
forwards accented iolus, eolus, whence came the French 
terminations ieul, euil, iol : thus fill-eul, fil-iolus '; chevr-euil, 
capr-eolus ; linc-eul, lint-eolum ; gla-ieul, glad-iolus ; rossig- 
nol, lusein-iolus ; aieul, av-iolus. 

Issa, Fr. esse. Abb-esse, abbat-issa; prophe't-esse, prophet- 
issa ; venger-esse, traiir-esse, &c. 

Itia, Fr. esse. Just-esse, just-itia; moll-esse, moll-itia; 
par-esse, pigr-itia ; trist-esse, trist-itia. French derivatives : 
ivr-esse, polit-esse, tendr-esse. 

Ivus, Fr. if. Che't-if capt-ivus ; na-if nat-ivus. French 
derivatives are many, pens-if, hdt-if, craint-if ois-if &c. 

Lentus, Fr. lent, lant. Vio-lent, vio-lentus ; sa?ig-lant, &c. 

Mentum, Fr. ment. Vete-ment, vesti-m6ntum ; fro-ment, 
fru-mentum, &c. French derivatives : minage-ment, change- 
ment, &c. 

Orem, Fr. eur. Chant-eur, cant-orem ; sauv-eur, salvat- 
orem; su-eur, sud-orem; past-eur, past-orem; pech-eur, 
peceat-orem, &c. 

Osus, Fr. eux. Epin-eux, spin-osus; pierr-eux, petr- 
osus; envi-eux, invidi-osus, &c. French derivatives, heur- 
eux (O. Fr. heur, see p. 175), hid-e'ux, hont-eux, &c. 

Onem, Fr. on. Charb-on, carb-onem ; pa-on, pav-6nem ; 
larr-on, latr-onem, &c. 

lonem, Fr. on. Soupg-on, suspic-ionem ; pige-on, pipi- 
onem ; poiss-on, L. Lat. pise-ionem ; moiss-on, messi-onem ; 
mais-on, mans-ionem, &c. 

Tionem, Fr. son. Rai-son, ra-tionem; poi'-son, po-tio- 
nem ; venai'-son, vena-tionem ; liaison, liga-tionem ; sai- 
son, sa-tionem ; fa-gon, fac-tionem ; le-gon, lee-tionem, &c. 
The form -lion is of learned origin, as in the words ra-tion, 
po-tion, liga-lion,fac-tion, Sec. 



105 DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

Tatem, Fr. te. Ci-l/, ci-tatem 1 ; sure-te, securi-tatem ; 
pauvre-te, pauper-tatem; &c. French derivatives: nouveau-te, 
opiniatre-te, &c. 

Icus, Fr. i ; iea, Fr. ic. Am-i, am-icus; ennem-i, inim- 
icus; fourm-i, form-ica; ort-ie, urt-ica; vess-ie, vess-ica; 
m-ie, m-ica ; p-ie, p-ica. The learned form is ique : ant-ique, 
pud-ique, &c. 

Uca, Fr. ue. Verr-ue, verr-uca ; lait-ue, lact-uca; charr-ue, 
carr-uca ; fet-u, fest-uea. 

Orius, Fr. oir. Dort-oir, dormit-orium ; press-oir, press- 
orium ; dol-oire, dolat-orium, &c. French derivatives : parl- 
oir, abbatt-oir, bruniss-oir, mdch-oire, balahg-oire. 

Undus, Fr. ond. Rond (O. Fr. roond), rot-undus. 

Unus, Fr. un. Je-un (O. Fr. jeiin), jej-unus; Verd-un, 
Virod-tinum. 

Ura, Fr. ure. Mes-ure, mens-tira; peint-ure, pict-ura. 
French derivatives : froid^ure, verd-ure, &c. 

Urnus, Fr. our. F-our, f-urnus ; j-our, di-urnus ; aub- 
our, alb-urnum, &c. 

Utus, Fr. u. Corn-u, corn-iitus; chen-u, ean-iitus. French 
derivatives in abundance : barb-u, jouffl-u, ventr-u, membr-u, 
chevel-u, &c. 

§ 2. Suffixes which are Atonic in Latin. 

' All these suffixes disappear in the French, and are 
consequently useless for the purpose of producing new deri- 
vatives ; they have however recovered their place from the 
time that men utterly lost sight of the genius of the language, 
and became ignorant of the rule of accent 2 / Thus people 
began to use such words as portique, fragile, rigide, instead 
of porche,frele, roide, from porticus, fragilis, rigidus. 

1 Common Latin for civitatem. 

2 G. Paris, Accent latin, p. 92. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 2. NOMINAL SUFFIXES. 1 89 

In considering these Latin atonic suffixes we are bound 
strictly to reject every word that has been introduced into 
the French language since the period of its natural for- 
mation. 

Eus, ius, Fr. ge, che. £tran-ge, extran-eus ; lan-ge, 
lan-eus ; delu-ge, diluv-ium ; lin-ge, lin-eus ; pro-che, prop- 
ius ; sa-ge, sap-ius ; sin-ge, sim-ius ; or-ge, hord-eum ; 
rou-ge, rub-eus ; au-ge, alv-ea ; son-ge, somn-ium ; Lie-ge, 
Leod-ium ; Maubeu-ge, Malbod-ium ; cier-ge, cer-eus \ 
For the change of eus, ius into ge, che, see above, p. 66. 

Ea, Fr. ge, gne. Ca-ge, cav-ea ; gran-ge, gran-ea ; vi-gne, 
vin-ea; li-gne, lin-ea; tei-gne, tin-ea. For the change of 
ea into ge, see above, p. 66. 

la, Fr. ge, che, ce ; or it disappears altogether. Vendan-ge, 
vindem-ia ; angois-se, angust-ia ; cigo-gne, cieon-ia ; li-ge, 
tib-ia ; se-che, sep-ia ; sau-ge, salv-ia ; env-ie, invid-ia ; 
grd-ce, grat-ia; histoi-re, histor-ia; Bourgo-gne, Bur- 
gund-ia; France, Frane-ia; Gre-ce, Gra6e-ia; Breia-gne, 
Britann-ia 2 . For the change of ia into ge, see above, 
p. 65. 

Icem (from ex, ix, represented in French only by ce, se, 
ge) : her-se, herp-ieem ; pu-ce, pul-icem ; ju-ge, jud-icem ; 
pou-ce, poll-ieem ; pon-ce, pum-icem ; ecor-ce, cort-icem. 3 . 

Ieus, a, urn, Fr. che, ge. P or -che, port-icus ; man-che, 
man-iea ; ser-ge, s6r-ica ; diman-che, domin-ica ; Sainton-ge, 
Santon-ica; for-ge (O. Fr. faur-ge), fabr-ica (see p. 76); 
per-che, pert-ica; pie-ge, ped-ica 4 . 



1 Learned form e, as ign-e, ign-eus. 

2 Learned form ie, as chim-ie, pkilosoph-ie, symphon-ie, Austral-ie. 
But we must not confound this termination with the proper 
French derivatives in ie, as felon-ie (felon), tromper-ie (tromper), 
&c, which are popular and very numerous. 

3 Learned form ice : cal-ice, cal-icem. 

* Learned form ique: port-ique, port-icus ; fahr-ique, fabr-ica; 
r viat-ique ) viat-icum. 



19° DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

Idus disappears in French. Pdle, pall-idus; net, nit- 
idus ; chaud, cal-idus (Low Lat. cal-dus) ; tiede, tep-idus ; 
roide, rig-idus ; sade, sap-idus ; whence maussade, male 
sap-idus 1 . See p. 180. 

His, Fr. le. Humb-le, hum-ilis ; faib-le (O. Fr. floible), 
fleb-ilis; douil-le, duct-ilis ; meub-le, mob-ilis; frele, frag- 
ilis ; gre'-le, grae-ilis 2 . 

Inus disappears in French. Page, pagina ; jaune, galb- 
inus ; femme, fem-ina ; frene, frax-inus ; dame, dom-ina ; 
char me, carp-inus ; coffre, coph-inus 3 . 

Itus, Fr. le. Ven-te, vendita ; ren-te, rSddita ; det-te, 
deVb-ita; per-te, perd-ita; que-te, quaes-ita. (So accented 
in vulgar Latin.) 

Olus, Fr. le. Diah-le, diab-olus ; apdtre (O. Fr. apost-le), 
apost-olus. 

Ulus, Fr. le. Tab-le, tab-ula; fab-le, fab-ula; amb-le, 
amb-ula ; peup-le, pop-ulus ; hieb-le, eb-ulum ; seil-le, sit- 
ula ; sang-le, cing-ulum ; ong-le, ung-ula ; chapit-re, capit- 
ulum; mer-le, mer-ula; iping-le, spin-ula; ensoup-le, in- 
sub-ulum 4 . 

The following suffixes are formed from ulus : — 

i. Ac-ulus, Fr. ail. Gouvern-ail gubern-aculum ; ten- 
aille, ten-aeulum; soupir-ail, suspir-aculum. French deri- 
vatives : trav-ail,ferm-ail, eventail, &c. 

2. Ee-ulus, Fr. il. Goup-il, vulp-ecula. In Old French 
this word meant a fox, and survives still in the diminutive 
goupillon, a sprinkler, originally made of a fox's tail. 

3. Ic-ulus, Fr. eil. Ab-eille, ap-ieula; ort-eil (O. Fr. 

1 Learned form ide : rig-ide, rig-idus ; sap-ide, sap-idus ; ar- 
ide, ar-idus ; &c. 

2 Learned form He : mob-He, mob-ilis ; duct-He, duct-ilis ; 
fragile, fragilis ; &c. 

3 Learned form ine : machine, machina, &c. 

4 Learned form ule: cell-ule, cell-ula; calcul, calc-ulus ; fun- 
amb-ule, funamb-ulus. 



Ch. 2. Sect. 3. VERBAL SUFFIXES. I9I 

art-eil), art-iculum ; somm-eil, somn-iculus * ; sol-eil, sol- 
iculus * ; or-eille, aur-icula ; corn-eille, eorn-icula ; ou-aille, 
ov-icula ; verm-eil, verm-feulus ; aig-uille, ac-icula. 

4. TJc-ulus, Fr. ouil. Fen-ouil, fen-ieulum ; gren-ouille, 
ran-ueula; verr-ou (O. Fr. verr-ouil, surviving in verrouiller), 
ver-uculum; gen-ou (O. Fr. gen-ouil, surviving in agenouiller), 
gen-uculum. 

We have seen above (p. 69) that vowels which follow the 
tonic syllable disappear in French ; consequently the learned 
forms of atonic suffixes, such as fragile, mobile, &c, from 
frag-ilis, mob-ilis, &c, are incorrect, seeing that they all 
retain the vowels after the tonic syllable, and in fact displace 
the Latin accent. One may indeed lay it down as a general 
rule that, in the case of Latin atonic suffixes, all French words 
of learned origin break the law of Latin accentuation. 



SECTION III. 

VERBAL SUFFIXES. 

§ i. Suffixes accented in Latin. 

Asco, Fr. ais ; eseo, Fr. ois ; isco, Fr. is. Na-is, n-aseo 1 ; 
p-ais, p-aseo; par-ais, par-esco; cr-ois, cr-esco, &c. 

Ascere, Fr. aitre, O. Fr. aistre. N-aitre, n-ascere ; p-aitre, 
p-ascere. 

Ico, igo, Fr. ie. L-ie, 1-igo ; chdt-ie, cast-igo ; n-ie, n-ego, 
&c. 

Illo, Fr. ele. Chanc-ele, gromm-ele, harc-ele, &c. 

Are, Fr. er. Pes-er, pens-are ; chant-er, cant-are, &c. 



1 We have seen (p. 119) that all deponent verbs became active 
in form in the Low Latin. 



\g2 DERIVED WORDS. Bk. III. 

Tiare, Fr. cer, ser. These are forms peculiar to the 
common Latin : ira-cer, trac-tiare ; su-cer, suc-tiare ; chas- 
ser, cap-tiare. 

§ 2. Atonic suffixes. 

Ico, Fr. che, ge. Ju-ge, jud-ico ; md-che, mast-ico ; ven-ge, 
vend-ico ; ron-ge, rum-igo ; char-ge, carr-ico, &c. The 
learned form is ique: revend-ique, revend-ico ; mast-ique, 
mast-ico. 

Ere, Fr. re. Sourd-re, stirg-ere; moud-re, mol-ere; tord-re, 
torqu-ere ; ard-re, ard-ere. This Old French verb, which 
signified ' to burn/ remains in the participle ardent, and sub- 
stantive ardeur. 

Io disappears in French. De'pouille, despolio. 

Ulo, Fr. le. Mou-le, mod-ulo ; comb-le, cum-ulo ; tremb-le, 
trem-ulo ; troub-le, turb-ulo. 

Under ulo we may put : — 

i. Ac-ulo, Fr. aille, as in tir-aille, cri-aille, &c. 

2. I-culo, Fr. ille. Fou-ille, fod-iculo ; saut-ille, tort-ille, 
&c. 

3. U-culo, Fr. ouille. Chat-ouille, bred-ouille, barb-ouille, 
&c. 

SECTION IV. 

DIMINUTIVES. 

These are sixteen in number. 

Aceus, Fr. ace, asse. Vill-ace, grim-ace (grimer), popul-ace, 
paper-asse, &c. 

Ieeus, Fr. isse, iche. Coul-isse (couler), pel-isse (peau), 
can-iche. 

Oceus, Fr. oche. Epin-oche, pi-oche. 

Uceus, Fr. uche. Pel-uche, guen-uche. 

Aculus. See above, p. 190. 

Aldus (from the Germ, wait, Low Lat. oaldus, then 



Ch. 2. Sect. 4. DIMINUTIVES. 1 93 

aldus), Fr. aud. Bad-aud, crap-aud, rouge-aud, lourd-aud, 
levr-aut. 

Alia, Fr. aille. Bet-ail, besti-alia \ poilr-ail, pector-alia ; 
vierv-eille, mirab-ilia ; port- ail, port-alia; can- aille, mur- 
aille, bat-aille, &c. 

Ardus (from the Germ, hart, Low Lat. ardus), Fr. ard. 
Bav-ard, bdt-ard, mign-ard, can-ard. See above, p. 184. 
Aster, Fr. dire. See above, p. 185. 

At, et, ot. (1) At: aigl-at, louv-at, verr-at. (2) Et, 
ette: sach-et (sac), coch-et (cog), moll-et (?nol), maisonn-ette, 
alou-ette, for which see above, p. 5. (3) Ot, otte: billot 
(bille), cach-ot (cache), brul-ot (brule), il-ot (He), &c. 

Ellus, illus, Fr. eau, el, elle. Agn-eau, agn- ellus ; jum-eau, 
gem- ellus; ann-eau, ann- ellus; ecu-elle, scut-ella ; vaiss-eau, 
vasc-ellus; ois-eau, avic-ellus. 

Onem, ionem. See above, p. 187. 
Ulus. See above, p. 190. 



APPENDIX 

CONTAINING THE RULES WHICH MUST BE FOLLOWED 
IN DETECTING DERIVATIONS. 

Etymology, which enquires into the origin of words, and 
the laws of transformation applicable to languages, is a new 
science. It is only during the last thirty years that it has 
entered into the cycle of the sciences of observation; but 
the services it has rendered have won for it a rank among 
historical sciences, which it ought never to lose. 

Before attaining its present precision, etymology, like 
every other science, — perhaps even more than any other, — 
passed through a long period of infancy, groping its way 
with uncertain efforts ; possessing, as its stock-in-trade, only 
a few arbitrary resemblances, superficial analogies, and 
guesses at combinations. 

' It is hard to realise to oneself how arbitrary was the 
spirit in which men sought for etymologies, so long as 
it consisted in placing words together at hap-hazard simply 
because they were like one another. 

* The dreams of Plato in his " Cratylus," the absurd etym- 
ologies of Varro and Quinctilian, the philological fancies 
of Manage in the seventeenth century, are matters of 
notoriety. Thus, for example, no one felt any difficulty in 
connecting jeune, " fasting," with jeune, " young," under the 
pretext that youth is the morning of life, and one is fasting, 
when one rises in the morning! But the common course 

O 2 



196 APPENDIX. 

was to derive from one another two words of totally different 
forms, and to fill up the gulf between them with fictitious 
intermediate words. Thus Manage derived the word rat 
from the Latin mus : " One must have first said mus, then 
muratus, then ratus, and lastly rat /" Nay, they even went 
so far as to suppose that an object could take its name from 
a quality the very contrary of that which it possessed, on the 
ground that " affirmation suggests negation;" and thus we 
have the famous lucus a non lucendo, on the pretext that 
" once in a sacred wood one has no more light 1 ." ' 

Finally, the illusions of etymologists became proverbial, 
and this branch of historical knowledge was thoroughly dis- 
credited. How then did a science, now established and 
important, emerge from such a mass of learned bewilder- 
ment ? The clue is the discovery and application of 
the comparative method, the true method of natural sciences. 
' Comparison is the chief instrument of scientific enquiry. 
For science is composed of generalisations : to know is 
to form a group, to establish a law ; consequently, to pick 
out whatever is general from among particular facts. But 
if we would compel facts to deliver up to us their inner 
meaning, we must place them side by side, explain them 
by one another : in a word, compare them.'' 

'Every one is acquainted with the discoveries of com- 
parative anatomy. We know how the study of the structure 
of animals, and the comparison of their organs (whose 
infinite modifications form the differentiae of class, order, 
and genus), have revealed, if we may so speak, the plan 
of nature, and have given us a firm foundation for our 
classifications V 

The same is true of the science of language : here, doubt- 



1 M. Reville, Les ancetres des europeens. 

2 E. Scherer, Etudes d'hisioire et de critique. 



APPENDIX. 197 

less, as elsewhere, comparison is as old as observation ; but 
there are two kinds of comparison, or rather, there are two- 
stages of comparison, through which in due succession 
every mind must pass. 

Of these the former stage is precipitate and superficial. 
It governed all natural sciences up to the end of the seven- 
teenth century, and was content to compare and class 
together beings or words according to their superficial like- 
ness. Thus the ancients put the whale and the dolphin in 
the class of fishes, because of their external form, their 
habits, and their habitat in the sea ; similarly the old etym- 
ologists derived the word par esse from the Greek napeo-is, 
because, among all the languages they knew, this Greek 
form was most like the French word ; and so they con- 
cluded, without further proof, that it came from the Greek — 
an easy way indeed of satisfying oneself ! 

To these arbitrary processes has succeeded in our day 
the stage of well-considered and methodical comparison ; 
a strict and scientific comparison, which does not stop at 
external resemblance or difference, but dissects objects in 
order to penetrate even to their very essence, and their 
deepest analogies. 

The anatomist studies the internal structure of the whale, 
and instantly sees that the conformation of its organs ex- 
cludes it from the class of fishes, and places it among the 
mammalia. And similarly, instead of only studying his 
word from the outside, the philologer dissects it, reduces it 
to its elements, i. e. its letters, observes their origin and the 
manner of their transformation. 

By a strict application of this new method, by letting facts 
lead instead of trying to lead them, modern philology has 
been enabled to prove that language is developed according 
to constant laws, and follows necessary and invariable rules 
in its transformations. 



I98 APPENDIX. 

We have set forth in this book the chief characteristics 
of this natural history of language. Especially with a view 
to etymology they furnish the student with unexpected as- 
sistance, and are, in his eyes, a precious instrument, a 
powerful microscope with which to observe the most delicate 
phenomena. 

Its instruments are these : Phonetics, History, Com- 
parison. 

I. Phonetics. 

In the earlier part of this book 1 we divided words into 
their elements, that is, into their letters, and saw that the 
transit of the letters from Latin to French followed a regular 
course, each Latin letter passing into French according to 
fixed rules : thus e long always becomes oi in French, as 
me, moi ; regem, roi ; legem, loi ; te, tot ; si, soi ; tela, 
toile ; velum, voile, &c. 

The bearings of this discovery are apparent at once : for 
if we will but observe these laws of change as they affect 
each letter in succession, we shall find them a clue to 
guide our researches, and to keep us from straying into 
wrong paths; if the etymology does not satisfy these con- 
ditions, it is naught. 

Thus then the possession in detail of the transforma- 
tion of the Latin letters into French 2 is the first necessity 
for those who would occupy themselves with etymology. 
If any one finds this preparatory study too minute or un- 
interesting, our reply is that anatomy observes and describes 
muscles, nerves, and vessels most minutely in detail; and 
draws out a catalogue of facts which may well seem dry 
and tiresome; but yet just as this comparative anatomy is 
the basis of all physiology, so is this exact knowledge of 

1 See above, pp. 45-86. 2 See above, Bk. I. pp. 66-76. 



APPENDIX. 199 

orthography the beginning of all true etymology: nothing 
else can give it the true character of a compact and rigorous . 
science. 

We may state this new principle thus : — We must reject 
every etymology, which, when the rules of permutation have 
been laid down by orthography, does not account for letters 
retained, changed, or lost. 

By the light of this principle let us take as an example 
the word laitue, and seek for its origin. We have seen above, 
under ' Phonetics/ p. 50, that the French combination it 
corresponds to the Latin ct ; as fa-it from fa-ct-us ; la-it, 
la-ct-em; tra-it, tra-ct-us; fru-it, fru-ct-us; redu-it, re- 
du-ct-us. 

Therefore the first part of the word laitue (lait) must 
answer to a Latin word lact-. What is the origin of the 
suffix -uel Now we have seen (p. 188) that this suffix is 
derived from the Latin suffix -uca ; as verr-ue from verr-uca ; 
charr-ue, carr-uca, &c. Thus we arrive at the form lact-uca, 
which is in fact the Latin word which expresses the idea 
involved in laitue, the lettuce. 

This enquiry into etymology is clearly analogous to the 
operations of chemical analysis. The chemist puts a sub- 
stance into his crucible and reduces it to its elements, and 
finds again the equivalent weight : so here too the elements 
are the letters, and our analysis, i. e. our etymology, is liable 
to suspicion so long as the elements have not' been dis- 
covered again after the process 1 . 

We may sum up by saying that etymological research 
is subject to two rules: — (1) No etymology is admissible 
which cannot account for all the letters of the word it 
proposes to explain, without a single exception; and (2) 
every etymology which assumes a change of letters ought 

1 M. Littre. 



200 APPENDIX. 

to have in its favour at least one example of a change quite 
identical with that which it assumes; otherwise, if no such 
testimony can be cited, the attempt is valueless. 

II. History. 

Every Latin word on its way into Modern French has 
gone through two changes ; it has passed from Latin into 
Old French, and thence into the French of to-day: thus 
festa became first feste, and then in course of time feste 
became fete. In finding the origin of a French word we 
should follow a wrong track if we speculated on it in its 
present state, leaping from Modern French to Latin; we 
must first enquire whether there are any intermediate forms 
in Old French which may explain the transition and mark 
the path followed by the Latin on its way to the present 
French. And besides, these intermediate forms, by bringing 
us nearer to the starting-point, help us to see that point 
more clearly, and often guide us to the word we are seeking 
without any further researches. 

An example will best illustrate the difference in this 
respect between the old and the new methods of etymology. 
The old etymologists were much divided as to the origin of 
the word dvie : some only thought of the sense, and there- 
fore declared that it came from the Latin anima, though 
they could not explain how the transformation had taken 
place ; others, finding the contraction of anima into dme 
far too violent a change, held that it was derived from the 
Gothic ahma, ' breath.' The case would be still ' sub judice,' 
had not modern philology intervened to solve the problem 
in the natural way. Substituting the observation of facts 
for the play of imagination, modern philologers have seen 
that it would be absurd to talk for ever over a word in its 
modern form, without taking any heed to the changes it has 



APPENDIX. 20 1 

undergone since the origin of the language ; and so they 
constructed the history of the word by the study of ancient 
texts, and shewed that in the thirteenth century dme was 
written atirne, in the eleventh aneme, in the tenth anime, 
whence we pass directly to the Latin anima. 

If we would obtain a secure foothold, we must move step 
by step over the intermediate forms; so as to be able to 
study in its gradations the deformation of the Latin word. 
But even here we must distinguish between two kinds of 
intermediate forms,— those of the old and those of the new 
philological school. The former assumed at a venture some 
improbable word as the origin of the word under considera- 
tion ; and, in order to join the two ends, imagined fictitious 
intermediate forms to suit their purpose. Thus, Menage 
pretended that he had found the origin of the French haricot 
in faba; and to fill up the gulf between these words he 
added, ' They must have said first faba, then fabaricus, then 
fabaricotus, aricotus, and finally haricot! . Such lucubra- 
tions are like a bad dream ; they justify the opinion of those 
who have laughed at etymology, and deserve the Chevalier 
d'Aceilly's epigram : 

1 Alfana} vient d'equus sans doute, 
Mais il faut convenir aussi 
Qu'a venir de la jusqu'ici, 
II a bien change sur la route;' 

for the learned made a scientific toy of what they ought 
to have treated as a science. 

The intermediate forms, diligently sought out by modern 
etymology, are very different; science does not ask what 
men 'must have said/ but what men did say. There are 
no more fanciful forms invented, as the case required them. 



1 The name given by Ariosto to Gradasso's mare. Menage 
proposed to derive it from equus. 



202 APPENDIX. 

French philology now limits itself to a diligent passage 
through old texts running back to the tenth century: then 
noting the birth of words and the first date of their appear- 
ance, it marks the changes in them century after century. 
Exact observation, which leaves no room for conjecture or 
invention, is a preliminary but essential part of all etymo- 
logical enquiry: before analysing a French word in its actual 
form, we must seek to obtain as many examples as we can 
of the word as it appeared in Old French. 

M. Littre* has followed this course in his admirable Dic- 
tionnaire htstorique de la langue frangaise : instead of invent- 
ing a series of arbitrary intermediate forms, he collects under 
each word a series of successive examples drawn from texts, 
running back to the very beginnings of the French language 
in the eighth century. These posts once firmly fixed, he 
goes on to build on them an etymology, which does not 
arise from the word in its present shape, but from it as it 
existed at the birthplace of the language. 

An attentive investigation into intermediate forms is the 
best help, after phonetics, that philology can have. 

III. Comparison. 

While popular Latin was giving birth to the French lan- 
guage, it also created, as we have seen (p. 10), four sister 
idioms to it, formed also with astonishing regularity — the per- 
mutation of the Latin letters into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, 
that is to say, what are called the Romance languages, being 
as regular and unchanging as into French. 

Consequently, we must compare the French forms with 
those current in the other Romance languages ; this will be 
the touchstone by which to try and prove all proposed 
hypotheses. We have just seen (p. 199) that laitue answers 
letter for letter to the Latin lactuca. If this etymology is 



APPENDIX. 203 

correct, it will follow that the Italian lattuga, and the Spanish 
lechuga, whose sense is the same, spring also from the same 
Latin word. And this will shew us that the Italian // and the 
Spanish ch come from the Latin ct: thus Italian no-tt-e, 
no-ct-em; la-tl-e, la-ct-em; o-tt-o, o-ct-o; bisco-tt-o, bisco- 
ct-us; tra-it-o, tra-ct-us, &c. — whence la-tt-uga, from la-ct- 
uca ; — Spanish no-ch-e, no-ct-em; le-ch-e, la-ct-em; o-ch-o, 
o-ct-o ; bisco-ch-o, bisco-ct-us ; tre-ch-o, tra-ct-us, &c. — 
whence le-ch-uga from la-ct-uca. Thus we see how the 
parallel relations of the Romance with the French languages 
strengthen our previous observations, and serve as verifying 
tests of our hypotheses. These parallels have another use ; 
they often shew us the road we ought to follow : — but time 
and space fail us, and we cannot stay to insist on the advan- 
tages that etymology can derive from careful comparison ; 
such details would be in their right place in a ' Manual of 
French Etymology/ but are beside the mark in this short 
outline of the new philological method, in which we are 
trying to describe the great revolution which has transferred 
etymology from the realms of fancy to the solid ground of a 
historical science. 

Conclusion. 

By shewing that words grow and have a history, and that, 
like plants and animals, they pass through regular transfor- 
mations — above all by shewing that here, as elsewhere, law 
reigns, and that we can lay down with certainty the rules of 
derivation from one language to another, — modern philolo- 
gers have set comparative etymology on durable founda- 
tions, and have made a science of what seemed condemned 
to be confined to the regions of imagination and individual 
caprice. 

The older system of etymology tried to explain the origin 
of words a priori, following their apparent resemblance or 



204 APPENDIX. 

difference; modem etymology applies the method of the 
natural sciences, and holds that words ought to explain 
themselves, and that, instead of inventing systems, we ought 
to observe facts, by the help of these instruments : — Pho- 
netics, which give us the rules of transformation from one 
language to another — rules which we must follow implicitly, 
or pay the penalty of losing our way; History of words, 
which passes on by certain and definite stages to the original 
word we are looking for, or, at any rate, brings us nearly 
up to it; and lastly, Comparison, which certifies and con- 
firms the results we have arrived at. 

To the fantastic imaginations of the learned of old days 
was due the discredit into which etymology had formerly 
fallen ; but by the strict application of this method and these 
principles, comparative etymology has risen in our time to 
the dignity of a science. 



IN DEX 



A. 

A, the French, 48 ; the Latin, 67. 

Abbesse (abbess), 187. 

Abeille (bee), 71. 

Accent, continuance of Latin, 33 ; 
grammatical, 33, 85 ; on vowels, 
67; tonic, 84; oratorical, 86; pro- 
vincial, 86; on compounds, 172. 

Accusative, the Latin, retained in 
French, 93. 

Adalhard, St., of Corby, spoke Romance, 

12. 

Addition of letters, 78-80. 

Adjectives, French, 102-108 ; used as 
substantives, 103; compound, 175. 

Adjutare (to help), 3. 

Adour, 54. 

Adverbial phrases, 161. 

Adverbs, 153-163 ; of place, 154 ; 
time, 155; manner, 158; intensity, 
T58 ; affirmative and negative, 160. 

Ae, the Latin, 68. 

Agneau (a lamb), 193. 

Ai, the French vowel, 52. 

Aider (to help), 3. 

Aieul (grandfather), 53. 

Aigle (eagle), 56. 
I Aigu (sharp), 51, 68. 
1 Aiguiser (to whet), 53. 

Aile (wing), 52. 
j Ailleurs (elsewhere), 154. 
■ Aimer (to love), 49, 67. 
! Ame (elder), 177. 



Ainsi (so), 168. 

Airain (brass), 55. 

Aisselle (armpit), 74. 

Ait (let him have), 139. 

Ajouter (to help), 74. 

Ak (Celtic latinised into acum), 74. 

Alans, 7. 

Albigensian, 18. 

Alcuin, 13. 

Alegre (cheerful), 49. 

Alentour (around), 155. 

Alise, 50. 

Aller (to go), 142, 149. 

Alleu (property held absolutely), 11. 

Alouette (lark), 5. 

Alphabet, French and Latin, 46-83. 

Alun (alum), 34. 

Amabam, in the Langue d'Oil dia- 
lects, 19, 137. 

Ambes mains (both hands), 107. 

Ame (the soul), 42, 72, 200. 

Amer (bitter), 49. 

Ami (friend), 49, 68. 

Amiens, 54. 

Amont (up stream), 1 55. 

Amour (love), 47, 97. 

Analytical tendencies of modern lan- 
guages, II. 

Ancetre (ancestor), 96. 

Ane (ass), 48. 

Ange (angel), 48. 

Anglo-French aristocratic words, 4. 

Angilbert, 13. 

Angoisse (anguish), 64, 73. 



zo6 



INDEX. 



Anguille (eel), 57. 

Anjou, 62. 

Anomalous verbs, 1 48-1 5 2. 

Aout (month August), 37. 

Aphseresis, 80. 

Apocope, 8c, 82. 

Apre (rough), 81. 

Aquitani, I. 

Arabic words in French, 22, 23. 

Arbre (tree), 47,' 48, 58, 67. 

Aries (a.d. 51), 14. 

Armor ica, 5. 

Arriere (behind), 58, 179. 

Arriver (to arrive), 177. 

Article, the French, 100. 

Asperge (asparagus), 48, 61. 

Assez (enough), 62. 

Atonic syllables, 68. 

Au, the French, 53, 68. 

Aube (dawn), 53. 

Auch, 64. 

Aucun (any), 1 1 5. 

Auge (trough), 53. 

Aujourd'hui (to-day). 155. 

Aula (court), 9. 

Aunaie (alder plot), 186. 

Auparavant (before now), 158. 

Aurone (southern-wood), 76. 

Aussi (also), 156, 168. 

Autre (other), 53, 1 15. 

Autrui (another), 115. 

Autun (school of), 4. 

Aux, 101. 

Auxiliary verbs, 123-129. 

Aval (down stream), 155. 

Avant-bras (fore-arm), 177. 

Avare (miser), 48. 

Avoine (oats), 52, 67, 184. 

Avoir (to have), 60. 

Avorter (to miscarry), 177. 

Avoue (attorney), 37. 



B. 



B, French, 58 ; Latin, 76 ; omission 

of, 82. 
Bacon, Roger, on French dialects, 19. 
Badaud (lounger), 193. 



Baiser (to kiss), 9. 

Balance (a pair of scales), 48, 183. 

Bannum (ban), 11. 

Barbouiller (to daub), 192. 

Basiare (to kiss), 9. 

Basque tongue, 1. 

Bataille (battle), 3, 9. 

Battre (to beat), 9. 

Batuere (to beat), 3, 9. 

Bavard (prattler), 193. 

Bazas, 59. 

Beau (fine), 53. 

Beaucoup (much), 159. 

Begueule (haughty prude), 176. 

Belgae, 1. 

Benin (benign), 186. 

Benir (to bless), 150. 

Bercheure's translation of Livy, 39. 

Besancon, 59. 

Betail (cattle), 193. 

Beton (concrete), 49. 

Bevue (blunder), 181. 

Bien (well), 54, 156, 160. 

Bienvenu (welcome), 180. 

Biscuit (lit. twice cooked), 50, 181. 

Blame (blame), 34. 

Blamer (to blame), 36. 

Ble (corn), 80. 

Bceuf (ox), 59. 

Boire (to drink), 58, 150. 

Bologne (Bologna), 56. 

Bon (good), 58. 

Bonnement (simply), 154. 

Boute (goodness), 35. 

Bordeaux, school of, 4. 

Bouche (mouth), 9, 64. 

Boucher (buckler), 103. 

Bouillir (to boil), 57. 

Boulogne, 64. 

Bourges, I. 

Braire (to bray), 144, 146. 

Brebis (ewe), 186. 

Breton, 5. 

Brosses, De, 29. 

Brulot (fireship), 193. 

Brunetto Latini wrote French, 1 7. 

Buanegez, 6. 

Burgundian French, 18. 

Burgundians, 7. 

Burgus, 7. 

Buvait (he drank), 51. 



INDEX. 



207 



C. 



C, the French, 63 ; the Latin, 74 ; 
omitted, 82. 

9 a ( here )« J 54- 

Cabane (cabin), 13. 

Caballus (a horse), 3, 9. 

Cable (cable), 56, 59. 

Caesar on Gaul, I. 

Cage (coop), 48, 66. 

Cailler (to curd), p, 177. 

Cailloux (pebbles), 94. 

Caisse (box), 52. 

Calandre (calendar), 48. 

Calvin, the French of his ' Institution,' 

25. 
Campagne (country), 21. 
Caniche (poodle), 192. 
Capet (Hugh), 16, 20. 
Car (because), 48, 63, 167. 
Carabine (carbine), 25. 
Cardinal numbers, 105-107. 
Carre (square), 48, 58. 
Carrefour (crossways), 58. 
Cases in French reduced to two, 89- 

91 ; thence to one, 93-96. 
Casser (to smash), 62, 63. 
Cassiodorus quoted, 3. 
Castrense verbum, 3. 
Catharine dei Medicis, her influence 

on the French tongue, 25. 
Catus (cat), 9. 
Ce(this), 113. 
Ceans (here within), 155. 
Ceindre (to surround), 151. 
Celtic language in Armorica, 6. 
Celts, 1. 

Celui = ecce ille, 113. 
Cep (stake), 49, 58. 
Cependant (however), 168. 
Cercle (circle), 56. 
Cercler (to hoop), 36. 
Cerf (stag), 59. 
Cerise (cherry), 61. 
Certes (certainly), 153. 
Cervoise (beer), 5. 
Cet (this), 113. 
Celtui = ce, 114. 
J Ch, he French, 64. 
Cha.un (each), 63. 
Chaine (chain), 73. 



Chair (flesh), 82. 

Chaloir (to matter), 147. 

Chambre (room), 56. 

Champ (field), 21, 58. 

Chanceler (to totter), 191. 

Chancre (crab), 34. 

Chandeleur (Candlemas), 64. 

Chandelle (candle), 49, 64, 186. 

Chanson de Roland, the, 17. 

Chanter (to sing), 191. 

Chanteur (singer), 33. 

Chapitre (chapter), 57. 

Chaque (every), 115. 

Char (car), 48, 67. 

Charge (burden), 192. 

Charlemagne, 8. 

Charles VIII, 25. 

Charme (spell), 56, 57, 67. 

Charrue (plough), 188. 

Chartre (charter), 57. 

Chartrier (charter-house), 36. 

Chasser (to hunt), 192. 

Chat (cat), 9. 

Chateau (castle), 53, 60. 

Chateau-Landon, 56. 

Chatier (to chastise), 191. 

Chatouiller (to tickle), 130. 

Chauffer (to heat), 176. ' 

Chauve (bald), 60. 

Chaux (lime), 62. 

Chef (head), 49, 59, 64. 

Chene (oak), 72. 

Chenil (dog-kennel), 49. 

Chenu (hoary), 188. 

Cheptel (lease or letting out of cattle), 

36. 
Cherement (dearly), 154. 
Cherte (dearness), 36. 
Chetif (mean, sorry), 76. 
Cheval (horse), 3, 9, 60. 
Chevanche (lit. ridden), 141. 
Cheveu (hair), 60. 
Chevre (she-goat), 60, 64. 
Chez (to house of, at), 62, 153, 16*3, 

165. 
Choir (to fall), 148. 
Chose (thing), 51, 64, 68. 
Chretien (Christian), 54. 
Church, the, adopts the ' Romance ' 

tongue, 12, 13. 
Ciel (heaven), 63. 



208 



INDEX. 



Cigogne (stork), 64. 

Cigue (hemlock), 49. 

Ciment (cement), 63. 

Cimetiere (cemetery), 69. 

Cinq (five), 63. 

Circuler (to circulate), 35. 

Cite (city), 63, 188. 

Clair (clear), 71. 

Clarte (clearness), 35. 

Classicists, their influence on the French 

language, 26. 
Claudius, 4. 
Clerge (clergy), 69. 
Clore (to close), 51, 146. 
Clovis, 7. 
Cceur (heart), 53. 
Coffre (coffer), 57, 59. 
Coi (still), 63. 
Colonisation, Roman, 2. 
Colonne (column), 58. 
Combien (how much), 160. 
Comble (I heap), 192. 
Combler (to heap up), 36. 
Comme (as), 168. 
Comment (how), 160. 
Commines, the French of, 25. 
Communier (to communicate), 37. 
Compagnon (companion), 177. 
Comparative, how formed, 104. 
Comparative method, 196. 
Comparison, 204. 

Comparison, degrees of, in French, 
104; used to test etymologies. 202. 
Compounds, formation of, 172. 
Compter (to count), 56. 
Comte (county), 36. 
Concevoir (to conceive). 143. 
Conditional mood, 120. 
Conduire (to conduct), 47. 
Confiance (confidence), 37. 
Conge (leave), 66. 

Conjugation of French verbs, 118-152. 
Conjunctions, 167-169. 
Connaitre (to know a person), 58. 
Consonants, loss of medial, 37 ; the 
French, 55-66 : the Latin, 70-76: 
transposition of, 77 ; addition of, 
79,- subtraction of, 81, 82. 
Conter (to relate), 55. 
Contraindre (to compel), 151. 
Contraire (contrary), 52. 



Contre-poids (counterpoise), 178. 
Coque (shell), 63. 
Coquille (shell), 63. 
Cor (horn), 57. 
Corbeau (crow), 59. 
Corps (body), 68. 
Cou (neck), 54. 
Coude (elbow), 54, 61, 76. 
Couleur (colour), 53. 
Coulisse (groove), 192. 
Coupable (culpable), 54. 
Coupe (cup), 54, 70. 
Couple (couple), 53, 58. 
Cour (court), 9. 
Courber (to bow), 59. 
Courir (to run), 140, 150. 
Couronne (crown), 54. 
Courre (to hunt), 140. 
Course (course), 141. 
Coursier (steed), 1 03. 
| Coutances, 51. 
Coiiter (to cost), 5 1. 
Couvent (convent), 51. 
Couvre-chef (head-dress), 176- 
Creance (credence), 37. 
Crete (crest), 49. 
Crever (to burst), 60. 
Crible (sieve), 56. 
Croire (to believe), 143. 
Crois (I grow), 191. 
Crois (I believe), 52. 
Crue (rising of waters). 141. 
Cruel (cruel), 49. 
Crusaders, 23. 
Cueillir (to collect), 130. 
Cuir (skin), 53. 
Cuire (to cook), 53, 151. 
Cuit (cooked), 60. 
Curials in Gallic cities, 7. 



D, French, 61 ; Latin, 74; omission 

of, 82. 
Daim (deer), 56. 
Dame, interjection, 1 70. 
Dangeau, l'Abbe, attempted a phonetic 

spelling, 29. 
Dans (in), 61, 154, 16 3 
Davantage (more), 160. 



INDEX. 



209 



Deca (on this side), 154, 164. 

Dechoir (to decline), 178. 

Decevoir (to deceive), 143. 

Decor (decoration), 34. 

Declensions, French, 88-1 1 7. 

Dedans (inside), 154. 

Defective verbs, 142-148. 

Defense (defence), 14 1. 

Dehors (outside), 155. 

D6ja (already), 158. 

Delayer (to dilute), 37. 

Delices (delight), 97. 

Deluge (deluge), 49. 

Demi (half), 181. 

Demonstrative pronouns, 113. 

Dentals, French, 60-62 ; Latin, 73- 

74- 

Denue (destitute), 37. 

Deponent verbs, 119. 

Depouiller (to strip), 192. 

Derivation, 181. 

Deroute (rout), 57. 

Derriere (behind), 164. 

De Brosses, his primitive language, 
29. 

Des (of the), 101. 

Des (from), 164. 

Deshonneur (dishonour), 178. 

Desormais (henceforth), 157. 

Dessous (underneath), 164. 

Dessus (upon), 164. 

Dette (debt), 34, 14 1, 190. 

Deux (two), 62. 

Devant (before), 164. 
j Devin (divine), 49. 
j Devoir (to owe), 61. 

Denotement (devotedly), 154. 

Diable (devil), 58, 190. 

Diacre (deacon), 57. 

Dictionnaire de l'Academie, 29. 

Dieu (God), 54. 

Digne (worthy), 64. 

Dijon, 63. 

Dime (tithe, tenth part or tenth), 34, 
61, 108. 

Diminutive suffixes, 192. 

Dire (to tell), 143. 

Dites (you say), 137. 

Dix (ten), 50, 62. 

Domestique (servant), 103. 

Done (then), 61, 158, 168. 



Donner (to give), 47. 

Dont (whose), 60, 114, 154. 

Dorenavant (in future), 157. 

Dormites (you slept), 138. 

Dortoir (dormitory), 72, 188. 

Dos (the back), 72. 

D'ou (whence), 114. 

Double (double), 59. 

Doubler (to double), 3. 

Douer (to endow), 37. 

Douleur (pain), 54. 

Doute (doubt), 76. 

Doyenne (deanery), 37. 

Douze (twelve), 62. 

Droit (right), 9, 50, 57. 

Du, un (a duty), I40. 

Du (of the), 101. 

Du Bellay's ' Defense et illustration 

de la langue francaise,' 26. 
Duit (led), 50. 
Duo (two), 106. 
Durant (during), 163, 165. 



E, the French vowel, 49 ; the Latin, 

67 ; addition of, 78. 
E long in Latin, 198. 
Eau, French compound vowel, 53. 
Ebeniste (cabinet-maker), 186. 
Echelle (ladder), 78. 
Echevin, scabinus (alderman), II. 
Ecole (school), 47. 
Ecolier (scholar), 181. 
Ecorce (bark), 79. 
Ecouter (to listen), 54. 
Ecrin (casket), 78. 
Ecrire (to write), 74, 15 1. 
Ecu (shield), 73, 82. 
Ecueil (reef of rocks), 71. 
Ecuelle (a porringer), 193. 
Edere (to eat), 9. 
Eginhard, 13. 
Eglise (church), 49, 50. 
Egwirion, 6. 

Ei, French compound vowel, 52. 
Ekuz, 6. 

Elite (chosen), 141. 
Emeraude (emerald), 61. 
Empire, last ages of the, 7. 
Emplette (purchase), 141. 



210 



INDEX. 



Emplir (to fill), 131, 178. 

Employer (to employ), 38. 

Empreindre (to imprint), 130, 152. 

En, prep, (in), 163. 

En, suffix, 109. 

En (lit. out of that), no, 153. 

Encontre (against), 163. 

Encore (lit. this hour still), 156, 168. 

Encrier (inkstand), 184. 

Enfant (infant), 95, 181. 

Enfer (hell), 45. 

Enfin (at last), 158. 

Enfler (to swell), 71. 

Enfreindre (to infringe), 1 5 2. 

England gave terms of civil life, &c. 

to France, 3 ; learnt French after the 

Norman Conquest, 17. 
English words imported into France, 

3°- 
Enkrezet, 6. 

Ensemble (whole), 73, 159. 
Ensuite (afterwards), 158. 
Ent ( = en), ill. 
Entorse (sprain), 141. 
Entre (between), 163. 
Entretien (conversation), 178. 
Envers (towards), 163. 
Envoyer (to send), 142, 178. 
Environ (about), 155. 
Epars (scattered), 61. 
Epe"e (broadsword), 79- 
Epenthesis, 78, 79. 
Epi (ear of corn), 49, 67. 
Epine (thorn), 49, 68. 
Epingle (pin), 73. 
Epithesis, 78, 80. 
Epoux (spouse), 62. 
Epreindre (to express), 152. 
Esclandre (that which gives rise to 

scandal), 57, 78. 
Escarboncle (^carbuncle), 79. 
Escaut (Scheldt), 60. 
Esperer (to hope), 74, 78. 
Esprit (spirit), 49. 
Essai (attempt), 9, 62. 
Essaim (swarm of insects), 34, 62. 
Essere (to be), 125. 
Essorer (to dry up), 62. 
Essoufier (to put out of breath), 178. 
Ester (to appear in court), 74, 125, 
144. 



Estomac (stomach), 78. 

Et (and), 168. 

Etable (stable), 47. 

Etain (tin), 55. 

Etais, not from stabam, 126. 

Etang (pool), 45, 64, 77. 

Etat (state), 60. 

Eteindre (to extinguish), 151. 

Etouppe (tow), 58. 

Etre (to be), 124-127. 

Etreindre (to bind), 151. 

Etroit (strict), 50. 

Etymology a new science, 195. 

Eu, French compound vowel, 53. 

Eulalia, St., French poem on, 15. 

Euskarian tongue, 1. 

Eux (those), 109. 

Eveche (bishopric), 185. 

Exploit (exploit), 141. 






F, the French, 59 ; the Latin, 76. 

Faillir (to deceive), 57, 143. 

Faim (hunger), 56. 

Faire (to make), 143. 

Faisan (pheasant), 59, 77. 

Faites (you make), 137. 

Fait un (a deed), 140. 

Falloir (to deceive), 147. 

Fashion, 30. 

Fauchee (day's mowing), 141. 

Faucon (falcon), 92. 

Faux (scythe), 59, 62. 

Feal (faithful), 186. 

Feindre (to feign), 151. 

Fel (gall), 54. 

Femme (woman), 58, 72, 190. 

Fenouil (fennel plant), 191. 

Fer (iron), 67. 

Ferir (to strike), 143. 

Fermail (clasp), 190. [ 

Ferme (form), 49. 

Fete (festival), 200,"' 

Feu (fire), 9, 159. H 

Feve (bean), 60. 

Fief (fief), II. 

Fier (proud), 54, 67. 

Fievre (fever), ~ j.. 

Fille (daughte- , 57. 



INDEX. 



211 



Fils (son), 56. 

Flairer (to scent), 56. 

Flambe (fleur-de-luce), 59. 

Flamme (flame), 48, 58. 

Fleurir (to bloom), 131. 

Foi (faith), 52, 67. 

Fois (time), 59, 155. 

Fonder (lay foundation of), 30. 

Formation of tenses, 1 36-1 41 ; of 
words, 1 71-193. 

Fort (strong), 47, 68. 

Fortunatianus on Latin genders, 99. 

Fortunatus (of Poitiers), 10. 

Four (oven), 54, 72, 188. 

Fourche (fork), 64. 

Fourmi (ant), 54. 

Fourvoyer (to mislead), 149. 

Fragile (brittle), 188. 

Frankish, io. 

Franks, 7, 10. 

Fredegarius, 8. 

Frederick II, Emperor of Germany, 
loved the French language, 17. 

Frein (bit), 52. 

Fremir (to shudder), 140. 

French, 4. 

French Academy, 165, 167. 

French language owes very little to 
"■eltic, 5 ; came from popular Latin, 
: in the Strasbourg Oaths, 14, 15 ; 
ii poem on St. Eulalia, 15 ; begins 
its -eal life, 16 ; divided into Langue 
d'Oc and Langue d'Oil, 18 ; He 
de France dialect prevailed, 20 ; 
distinguished from Picard, 21 ; in 
fourteenth century became the 
French language, 22 ; in fifteenth 
century, 25; in sixteenth, 25; in 
seventeenth, 28 ; in eighteenth, 29; 
in nineteenth, 29 ; has learned and 
popular words, 32 ; laws of its for- 
mation, 32-38 ; popular words re- 
spect Latin accent, 33, 34; are 
shorter th he learned, 34, 35 ; 
declensions, -99; genders, 96- 
98 ,• numbers, 1 8, 99 ; article, 100 ; 
pronouns, 109-117 ; verbs, 1 1 8- 
152; particles, 153-170; adverbs, 
1 5^- I (>3 5 prepositions, 163-167 : 
conjunctions, 167-169 ; interjec- 
tions, 169-170. 



Frenchman (in middle ages), 19. 

Frene (ash tree), 190. 

Fresaie (white owl), 59. 

Frire (to fry), 146. 

Froid (cold), 61. 

Froment (cheese), 56. 

Fronde (sling), 80. 

Fruit (fruit), 50. 

Fumier (dung), 51, 59. 

Future tense, how formed, 1 1 2-138. 



G. 



G, French, 64 ; Latin, 75 ; addition of 

79 ; omission of, 82. 
Galea (helmet), 13. 
Galerita (lark), 5. 
Gallic race, I . 
Gallo-Roman nobles cultivate literary 

Latin, 8. 
Gapencais, 64. 
Gard, 64. 

Gascogne (Gascony), 61, 64. 
Gascon (patois), 18. 
Gater (to spoil), 64. 
Geant (giant), 65. 
Geindre (to moan), 65. 
Gemir (to groan), 140. 
Gencive (gums in mouth), 60, 65. 
Genders in French, 96-98. 
Genisse (heifer), 186. 
Gens (people), 99. 
Gentil (pretty), 185. 
German language enters France, 6, 7 ; 

forgotten in France, 1 1 ; some words 

retained, 11. 
Gesier (gizzard), 99. 
Ge'sir (to lie — dead or ill), 143. 
Glaieul (corn flag), 71, 187. 
Glosses of Reichenau, 12. 
Glouton (glutton), 9. 
Gobelet (goblet), 64. 
Gonfler (to swell out), 64. 
Got, Bi, 11. 
Gothic, 10. 

Goujon (gudgeon), 63, 64. 
Goupillon (sprinkling-brush), 190. 
Gout (taste), 64. 

Goutte (lit. drop; negative), 162. 
Gouvernail (rudder), 190. 



P 2 



212 



INDEX. 



Grammarians, philosophical, 29. 

Grammatical accents, 85. 

Grand'mere (grandmother), 103. 

Grange (barn), 189. 

Gras (fat), 64. 

Gre (taste), 49. 

Greek (Attic), 19. 

Greek fashionable words in Latin, 3 ; 

some others, through the Latin, 

27 ; introduced by the classicists, 

27. 
Gregory (of Tours), 8. 
Grele (slender), 190. 
Grenade (grenade), 1 03. 
Grenoble, 18. 
Grenouille (frog), 79- 
Gud (ford), 64. 
Guepe (wasp), 64. 
Guere (little), 160. 
Gueres (but little), 153. 
Guerre (war) ; werra, German, II, 160. 
Gui (mistletoe), 64. 
Guivre (viper), 64. 
Gutturals, French, 63-66 ; Latin, 74, 

75- 



H. 

H, French, 66; Latin, 75; addition 

of, 79. 
Haleine (breath), 52. 
Halsberc (hauberk), II. 
Haribert, 10. 
Heaume (helmet), 1 1. 
Hebdomas (week), 3, 9. 
Hebrew words in French, 22. 
HeUas (alas), 169. 
Hermine (ermine), 49. 
Herse (harrow), 189. 
Heure (hour), 53. 
Hieble (dwarf elder), 54, 71, 190. 
Hier (yesterday), 54, 66, 155. 
Histoire (history), 52. 
History of words, 204. 
Hiver (winter), 57. 
Hoir (direct heir), 52. 
Holtzmann, 12. 
Homme (man), 58, 66. 
Honnete (honourable), 186. 
Honneur (honour), 50. 
Hormis (but), 66, 166. 



Hors (out), 66. 

H6tel (hotel), 36, 183. 

Hrolf the Norman, 11. 

Hugh Capet knew no Latin, 16. 

Hui (to-day), 53, 66, 155. 

Huis (door), 53. 

Huit (eight), 42, 60, 79. 

Huttre (oyster), 53. 

Hurler (to howl), 79. 

Hymne (hymn), 97. 



I, the French, 49, 50 ; the Latin, 67 ; 

transposition of, 77. 
Iberian, I. 
Icelle = celui-la, 114. 
Icest = cet, 113. 
Ici (here), 154. 
Icil = celui, 113. 

Idioms, aristocratic and popular, 2. 
Ie, ieu, French compound vowels, 54. 
-ieme = Lat. -esimus, 107. 
Ignis (fire), 9. 
Ille becomes le, 100, 101. 
Image (image), 49. 
Imperative mood, 139. 
Imperfect indicative, 137; subjunctive, 

1 39- 

Imprimer (to imprint), 140. 

Inchoative verbs, 131. 

Indefinite pronouns, 115-117. 

Infinitive mood, 139. 

Inflexion of French words, 87. 

Interjections, 169. 

Invasion (a.d. 407), *J. 

Irregular verbs, 142. 

-issime, French superlatives in, 105. 

Issir (to issue), 143. 

Issue (issue), 140. 

Italian, 4, 10. 

Italians in thirteenth century valued 
French tongue, 1 7 ; their influence 
on it in fifteenth century, 25. 

Iter (journey), 9. 

Ivre (drunken), 50. 

J. 

J, the French, 62 ; the Latin, 75. 
Jadis (of yore), 153, 1 55. 



INDEX. 



213 



Jamais (ever), 157. 
Jaune (yellow), 53, 62. 
Je (I), 109, no. 
Jean (John), 62. 
Je'rome, 63. 
Jerusalem, 6$, 65. 
Jen (play), 159. 
Jeiine (fasting), 62, 195. 
Jeune (young), 62, 195. 
Joachim du Bellay, 26. 
Joug (yoke), 68. 
Jouir (to rejoice), 62. 
Jour (day), 63, 65. 
Juin (June), 53. 
Jumeau (twin), 62, 186. 
Jusque (till), 66. 
Juvare (to assist), 3. 
Juvenal, 7. 



K (see letter C). 

the Strasbourg 



and 



Karl the Bald 

Oaths, 14. 
Karl (the Great), 12. 
Karl the Simple, 11. 
Karling, 10. 
Kilometre, 63. 
KoKacpos (box on ear), 160. 
Kymri, 5. 

L. 

L, the French, 56 ; the Latin, 7 r ; 
transposed, 77; added, 70 ; apocope 
of, 83. 

La (there), 154. 

Labials, French, 58-60; Latin, 75- 
76. 

Lacurne de Sainte-Palaye, I 20. 

Laisser (to leave), 9, 62. 

Lait (milk), 50. 

Laitue (lettuce), 50, 199, 202. 

Lambruche (wild vine), 79. 

Language and history of France con- 
nected, 20. 

Language of seventeenth century the 
best, 40. 

Lange (swaddling-bandj, 66, 189. 

Langue d'Oc, 18. 

Langue d'Oil, 18. 

Langue (tongue), 48, 56. 



Langouste (spiny lobster), 64, 79. 

Lanterne (lantern), 45, 186. 

Larron (thief), 95. 

Latin accent, 34. 

Latin accent dead, 39. 

Latin, Peasant, 12. 

Latin, spoken through Gaul, 2 ; in 
two idioms, 2, 3 ; popular, parent 
of modern languages, 4, 9 ; the 
literary perishes, 7 ; low, 8 ; parent 
of French, 9 ; not known by Hugh 
Capet, 16; even in monasteries it 
died out, 1 7 ; loses all cases but 
two, 22, 23 ; the alphabet in, 66- 
76 ; loses the neuter gender, 99. 

Latin verbs, 122. 

Law of history, 2. 

Laxare (to relax), 9. 

Le (the), 100. 

League (wars of the), 28. 

Legende (legend), 183. 

Leger, St., French poem on, 16. 

Legs (legacy), 94. 

Legume (vegetable), 49. 

Lepre (leprosy), 67. 

Leti, the, 6. 

Lettre (letter), 56. 

Leur (of, or to, them), 53, in. 

Levain (leaven), 183. 

Levre (lip), 60. 

Lez (near), 62, 94, 166. 

Lizard (lizard), 48, 62. 

Li, la, 100, 101. 

Liaison (intrigue), 61. 

Lie, O. Fr. (merry), 68. 

Lier (to bind), 38, 49. 

Li^ge (cork), 67. 

Lierre (ivy), 79. 

Lieu (place), 54. 

Linceul (a shroud), 13. 

Lievre (hare), 54. 

Linge (linen), 103. 

'Lingua Romana Rustica,' 12. 

Liquids, French, 55-58; Latin, 71- 

73- 

Lire (to read), 133, 143. 
Lis (lily), 80. 
Lisons (we read), 137. 
Lit (bed), 50. 

Literature of early French language, 
i7- 



£i4 



INDEX. 



Littre, M., on accent, 86; on declen- 
sion, 92; his Dictionnaire, 202. 
Livre (book), 60. 
Livrer (to free), 36. 
LI, the French, 57. 
Lodeve, 61. 
Loi (law), 67. 
Loin (far), 154. 
Loir (dormouse), 80. 
Londres (London), 57. 
Long (long), 64. 
Longtemps (long time), 156. 
Lors (then), 157. 
Lorsqne (when), 168. 
Lot, 77. 

Louche (squint-eyed), 81. 
Loup (wolf), 58. 
Loutre (otter), 56. 
Louvat (young wolf), 1 93. 
Louve (she-wolf), 60. 
Low Latin, 8. 

Lucarne (dormer window), 48. 
Ludus (sport), 9. 
Ludwig the German takes oath in 

French, 10, 14. 
Luire (to shine), 151. 
Lyons, School of, 4. 



M, the French, 56; the Latin, 72 

addition of, 80. 
Ma (my), 112. 
Macher (to chew), 36. 
Madeleine, 75. 
Maigre (lean), 52, 64, 67. 
Main (hand), 52, 56. 
Maint (many a), 116. 
Maintenant (instantly), 155. 
Mais (but), 6l, 168, 180. 
Maison (house), 61, 72, 187. 
Majeur (greater), 104. 
Mai (badly), 160. 

Malherbe resisted the classicists, 28.) 
Malheur (misfortune), 175. 
Malin (malignant), 75. 
Mallum, II. 

Malmener (to maltreat), 180. 
Manche (handle), 189. 
Manger (to eat), 9. 



Maratre (stepmother), 185. 

Marbre (marble), 59. 

Marchand (shopkeeper), 48, 61, 183. 

Marco Polo wrote in French, 17. 

Marguillier (churchwarden), 73. 

Mariscallus, II. 

Marne (marl), 56. 

Marotic style, 156. 

Marraine (godmother), 58. 

Marseilles, I. 

Matiere (matter), 60. 

Matois (cunning), 186. 

Maturus, mur (ripe), 38. 

Maussade (unpleasant), 180. 

Mayenne, 48. 

Meaux, 53. 

Mediant (wicked), 183. 

Meche (wick), 49. 

Medial consonants, 32. 

Meilleur (better), 104. 

Meme (same), 116. 

Menage, 196, 201. 

Mener (to lead), 49. 

Mente forms the adverbial -ment, 153. 

154- 
Mentir (to lie), 55. 
Menu (minute detail), 49, 51. 
Mepriser (to despise), 180. 
Mer (sea), 56. 
Merci (mercy), 50. 
Mere (mother), 56, 73. 
Merle (blackbird), 190. 
Merovingian kings, 8. 
Mesestimer (to undervalue), 180. 
Mettre (to place), 143. 
Meuble (furniture), 34. 
Meule (millstone), 53, 68. 
Meuse, 53. 

Meute (pack of hounds), 141. 
Meyer, M., on the two Latin idioms, 

8. 
Mi (half), 50. 

Miche (lump of crumb), 64. 
Midi (noon), 181. 
Mie (lit. speck ; negative), 162. 
Miel (honey), 54. 
Mieux (better), 159. 
Mineur (less), 104. 
Mis, O.Fr. (mine), ill. 
Mm, French, 58. 
Moelle (marrow), 81. 



INDEX. 



"5 



Moeurs (manners), 53. 

Moindre (less), 73, 104. 

Moins (less), 61, 160. 

Moisir (to make mouldy), 61. 

Moisson (harvest), 187. 

Mollet (calf of leg), 193. 

Mon (my), 55. 

Monks at last abandoned Latin, 17, 

Moods of French verb?, 119. 

Mortel (mortal), 43, 67. 

Mort-ne (still-born), 175. 

Mou (soft), 54. 

Mouche (fly), 64. 

Moudre (to grind), 73, 192. 

Moulin (mill), 54. 

Mourir (to die), 150. 

Moutier (monastery), 51. 

Moyennant (by means of), 163, 165. 

Mouvoir (to move), 150. 

Muid (hogshead), 53, 61. 

Mummolinus, St., could speak German 

and Romance, 12. 
Munir (to fortify), 51. 
Mur (wall), 5 1 . 
Mur (ripe), 38, 73. 



N 



N, the French, 55 ; the Latin, 72 ; 

transposed, 77; addition of, 80; 

apocope of, 83. 
Nager (to swim), 36. 
Nagueres (lately), 155. 
Naif (simple), 187. 
Naitre (to be born), 151, 191. 
Nappe (table-cloth), 55. 
Natte (mat), 55. 
-ndre, verbs ending in, 15 1. 
Ne (not), 161. 

Neanmoins (nevertheless), 168. 
Nef, O. Fr. (ship), 49, 59. 
Nefle (medlar). 55, 59. 
Nenni (no), 82. 

INeuf (new, nine), 53. 
Neuter gender in Latin, when lost, 99. 
Neveu (nephew), 53. 
Nez (nose), 49, 62, 67. 
Ni (neither), 168. 
Niais (simple), 185. 



Nicolas Berain, 138. 

Nielle (smut), 82. 

Nithard, 1 4. 

Niveau (level), 56. 

Nn, French, 58. 

Noces (nuptials), 51, 81. 

Nceud (knot), 53. 

Noir (black), 67. 

Noix (nut), 62. 

Nom (name), 50, 56. 

Nombre (number), 51. 

Nommer (to nominate), 56. 

Non (not), 161. 

Nonchalant (careless), 181. 

None = ninth, 108. 

Nonobstant (notwithstanding), 163, 

165. 
Norman-French, 18. 
Nouns of number, 105 ; compound, 

174; suffixes to, 183. 
Nous (we), 53. 

Noyer (to kill by drowning), 49. 
Nu (naked), 51. 
Nuire (to hurt), 151. 
Nul and nullui (no), 116. 
Numbers in French, 98, 99. 



O, the French vowel, 50, 51 ; the 

Latin, 68. 
Oaths of Strasbourg, 10, 1 1, 1 4, 15. 
Obeir (to obey), 47, 50. 
Objective case alone retained in French, 

93- 
Occire (to slay), 74. 
Octante (eighty), 106. 
Ocymore, 27. 
OSu, French compound vowel, 53. 

CEuf(egg), 53, 59- 

CEuvre (work), 53. 

Oi, French compound vowel, 52. 

Oignon (onion), 64. 

Oindre (to anoint), 152. 

Oint (anointed), 50. 

Oiseau (bird), 62. 

Oiseux (idle), 27, 61. 

Old French perished by the end of the 

fourteenth century, 25. 
On = homo (a man), 116. 



2l6 



INDEX. 



One (ever), 63. 

Ongle (nail-finger or toe), 51. 

Onze (eleven), 62, 106. 

Or (gold), 51. 

Or, Latin masculines in, become French 

feminines, 97. 
Or (now), 153, 155, 168. 
Oratorical accent, 85. 
Ordinals, 107. 
Ordre (order), 57. 
Oreille (ear), 57, 68. 
Oresme's translation of Aristotle, 39. 
Orfevre (goldsmith), 59, 174. 
Orfraie (osprey), 57, 59. 
Orge (barley), 64, 127. 
Orgue (organ), 34, 97. 
Oriental elements of French, 22. 
Oripeau (tinsel), 174. 
Orleans, 51. 

Orphelin (orphan), 45, 56. 
Orteil (toe), 190. 
Ortie (nettle), 51. 
Os (mouth), 9. 
Osculari (to kiss), 9. 
Oser (to dare), 51. 
Otto II, j6. 

Ou, French compound vowel, 53. 
Ou (or), 168. 
OU (where), 154. 
Oui (yes), 75, 160. 
Ouir (to hear), 49. 
Quit (lit. he hears, obs.), 13 7. 
Ours (bear), 54, 61, 68. 
Outre (beyond), 163. 
Outre (leather bottle), 54. 
Outrecuidance (overweening), 180. 
Ouvrer (to work), 36. 



P. 

P, the French, 58 ; the Latin, 75. 

Pacifier (to pacify), 176. 

Paille (straw), 57. 

Pain (bread), 58. 

Paitre (to pasture), 74, 131. 

Paix (peace), 62. 

Palais (palace), 61. 

Pale (pale), 190. 

Palefroi (palfrey), 56, 59. 

Palerme (Palermo), 56. 



Pampre (vine branch), 57. 

Panier (pannier), 48. 

Paon (peacock), 82, 187. 

Paperasse (waste paper), 192. 

Par (by), 163. 

Parchemin (parchment), 48, 49. 

Parer (to adorn), 48. 

Paresse (sloth), 48, 187, 197. 

Parfaire (to complete), 179. 

Paris, 20. 

Paris, M. G., on le, 101. 

Parjure (perjury), 62. 

Parmi (among), 164. 

Parrain (godfather), 58. 

Participles, 140; many became nouns, 
141 ; also prepositions, 165. 

Particles, 153-170 ; words formed 
with, 176; qualitative, in compo- 
sition, 180 ; quantitative, 181 ; 
negative, 181. 

Parvenir (to arrive at, lit. step), 178. 

Pas (negative), 161. 

Pasteur (pastor), 187. 

Pate (paste), 81. 

Patois distinct from dialect, 21. 

Peche (fishing), 72. 

Peindre (to paint), 152. 

Peinture (picture), 188. 

Pelerin (pilgrim), 69, 186. 

Peluche (plush), 192. 

Pendant (during), 163, 165. 

Pendre (to hang), 130. 

Perche (perch, measure), 64. 

Pere (father), 49. 

Perfect indicative, 138. 

Permutation, rules of, 199. 

Personal pronouns, 109-HI. 

Personne (one), 162. 

Persons of French verbs, 1 21. 

Perte (loss), I4I. 

Peu (little), 74, 159. 

Peuple (peopled), 35. 

Ph, the French, 59. 

Philip the Fair, 24. 

Phocaean, I. 

Phonetics, 204. 

Picard French, 18, 21. 

Piege (snare), 189. 

Pierre (stone), 54. 

Pierre de Ronsard, 26, 27. 

Pierreux (rocky), 187. 



INDEX. 



11? 



Pigeon (pigeon), 65. 

Piment (pimento), 75. 

Pioche (pickaxe), 192. 

Pire (worse), 104. 

Pis (worse), 159. 

Placidus the grammarian, 163. 

Plaindre (to pity), 152. 

Plaire (to please), 143. 

Plaisir (pleasure), 61. 

Pleurard (crying child), 184. 

Pleurer (to bewail), 71. 

Pleurs (tears), 99. 

Plier (to fold), 82. 

Pliny, his works known through Gaul, 

4- 
Plomb (lead), 58. 
Plus (more), 156. 
Plusieurs (several), 105, 117. 
Plutot (rather), 156. 
Poem in French verse, first, 15. 

„ „ second, 16. 

Poetry sprang from people, 16. 
Poil (hair), 52, 56, 67. 
Poindre (to sting), 152. 
Poing (fist), 64. 

Point (point, negative), 50, 161. 
Pointe (point), 141. 
Poire (pear), 52, 67. 
Pois (pea), 52. 
Poison (poison), 52. 
Poisson (fish), 187. 
Poitiers, 50. 

Poitrail (breast), 36, 50. 
Poivre (pepper), 52. 
Pomme (apple), 47. 
Pommier (apple-tree), 184. 
Ponce (pumice), 51. 
Pondre (to lay), 47, 50. 
Popular Latin, 3, 9, 12. 
Pore (pig), 70. 
Porche (porch), 34. 
Portail (doorway), 193. 
Porter (to acrry), 129. 
Portique (portico), 188. - 
Portuguese, 10. 
Position, relations of words expressed 

by, 23. 
Possession and aim, II. 
Possessive pronouns, 111-113. 
Posture (posture), 35, 69. 
Poterne (postern), 56. 



Potier (potter), 184. 

Pouce (thumb), 54. 

Poudre (powder), 54. 

Poulpe (pulp), 34. 

Pour (for), 163. 

Pourchasser (to pursue), 179. 

Pourrir (to rot), 58. 

Pourtant (nevertheless), 1 59. 

Pre (near), 58. 

Precher (to preach), 179. 

Premier (first), 54, 184. 

Prendre (to take), 143. 

Prepositions, instead of inflections in 
common Latin, 11 ; the French, 
163-167 ; words formed with, 177. 

Present indicative, 136; subjunctive, 

139- 
Presque (almost), 160. 
Preuve (proof), 53. 
Prime-abord, de (at first sight), 107. 
Primevere (primrose), 175. 
Proche (near), 189. 
Pronouns, 109-117. 
Prosody, 83-85. 
Prosthesis, 78. 
Prouver (to prove), 127. 
Provencal, 18. 
Provincial accent, 85. 
Puce (flea), 189. 
Pugna (fight), 3, 9. 
Puine (younger), 177, 179. 
Puis (then), 53, 158, 164. 
Puisque (since), 169. 
Puits (well), 94. 
Punic, 2. 
Puy, Le, 53. 

Q. 

Q_, the French, 63 ; the Latin, 75. 
Qualifying adjectives, 102. 
Quand (when), 168. 
Quant (in regard to), 117. 
Quarante (forty), 106. 
Quart (fourth), 108. 
Que (that), 168. 
Que (whom), 114. 
Quel (what), 63, 1 1 4. 
Quelconque (whatever), 117. 
Quelque (some), 117. 
Querir (to fetch), 140, 143. 



3l8 



INDEX. 



Quete (quest), 141. 
Queue (tail), 63. 
Queux (hone), 53, 63. 
Qui (who), 1 1 4. 
Quiconque (whoever), 117. 
Quinctilian, 65, 100, 195. 
Quinte-essence (quintessence), 108. 
Quoi (which), 114. 



R, the French, 57; the Latin, 72; 

transposed, 77 ; addition of, 80. 
Raison (reason), 50, 55. 
Rambouillet, 28. 
Recette (receipt), 141. 
Recevoir (to receive), 143. 
Recoltes (crops), 108. 
Recouvrer (to recover), 36. 
Recu, un (a receipt), 140. 
Reduire (to reduce), 179. 
Regie (rule), 49. 
Regne (kingdom), 55, 57. 
Reims, 52. 

Relative pronouns, 114. 
Remorque (towing), 57. 
Renaissance, the, dazzled the French, 

25. 
Renie (renegade), 38. 
Rente (rent), 141. 
Replier (to refold), 38. 
Reponse (reply), 141. 
Repugnance (repugnance), 183. 
Rets (net), 94. 
Revenger (to revenge), 36. 
Rez (on a level with), 62, 166. 
Rheims (a.d. 813), 14. 
Rien (lit. thing; negative), 55, 162. 
Rigide (stiff), 188. 
Rire (to laugh). 133, 143. 
Rochelle, La, 18. 
Romance, 14. 
Romans enter Gaul, 1 . 
Romantic school of literature in 

France, 29. 
Rond (round), 82, 188. 
Rossignol (nightingale), 57. 
Roue (wheel), 53. 
R.nussillon, 56. 



Route (way), 14I. 
Roux (russet), 62. 
Rr, the French, 58. 
Ruine (ruin), 55. 



S, the French, 61 ; the Latin, 74 

addition of, 80. 
Sa (her), 112. 
Sablier (sand-box), 184. 
Sagma, 13. 
Saint (holy), 50. 
St. Adalhard, 12. 
Saison (season), 61. 
Saiut (health), 48. 
Samedi (Saturday), 56. 
Sancerre, 48. 

Sangle (strap), 48, 61, 64. 
Sanglier (wild boar), 48, 103. 
Sanglot (sob), 48. 
Sans (without), 48, 153, 163. 
Sante (health), 35. 
Sapin (fir), 58. 
Sauf (safe), 53, 59. 
Saut (leap), 53. 
Sauvage (wild), 48. 
Savoir (to know), 60, 151. 
Savon (soap), 48, 60. 
Sec (dry), 49, 63, 68. 
Seche (dry), 189. 
Secher (to dry), 64. 
Second (second), 63. 
Seigneur (lord; lit. elder), 52, 84. 
Seille (bucket), 57, 71. 
Seime = septieme (seventh), 108. 
Sein (bosom), 52. 
Sel (salt), 49, 56. 
Selon (according to), 164. 
Semaine (week), 3, 9, 49, 52. 
Sembler (to seem), 36. 
Senechal (siniscallus), 11. 
Sente (path), 55. 
Seoir (to befit), 148. 
Serf (slave), 59. 
Sergent (sergeant), 64. 
Serment (oath), 61. 
Sermo nobilis rusticus, 3. 
Setme, O. Fr. (seventh), 108. 
Seul (alone), 53, 56, 68. 



INDEX. 



219 



Seulement (solamente), 13. 

Seve (sap), 60. 

Sevrer (to separate), 36J 1 79. 

Si (so), 158. 

Simuler (to simulate), 32. 

Sindones, 13. 

Singe (ape), 55, 65. 

Sinre, O. Fr. (sire), 105. 

Six (six), 50, 62. 

Six-vingt (hundred and twenty), 106. 

Sixte (sixth), 108. 

Soeur (sister), 53. 

Soif (thirst), 52. 

Soir (evening), 52. 

Soit (let him be), 139. 

Soixante (sixty), 62. 

Somme, soma (a nap), 13, 58. 

Sommeil (sleep), 58. 

Son (his), 55. 

Son (sound), 55. 

Soubre-saut (somersault), 179. 

Soudain (sudden), 158. 

Soudre (to solve), 147. 

Soufre (sulphur), 54. 

Souloir (to be wont), 54, 147. 

Soumis (submissive), 76. 

Source (source), 14 r. 

Sourcil (eyebrow), 49, 56. 

Sourd (deaf), 54, 6t. 

Sourdre (to rise), 147. 

Sourire (to smile), 179. 

Souris (mouse), 57. 

Sous (under), 61. 

Sous-entendu (thing understood), 1 79. 

Souvent (often), 60, 157. 

Spain, her influence on the French 
language, 28. 

Spanish, 4, 10.' 

Strabo, 4. 

Strasbourg, Oaths of, 10, II, 14, 15; 
Council of, 14. 

Strong verbs, what, 122. 

Struire (to join together), 151. 

Subjective (or nominative) case re- 
tained in a few words, 96. 

Subjunctive mood, 139. 

Substantives, French, declension of, 
88-99. 

Subtraction of letters, 80. 

Suffixes, 181. 

Suif (tallow), 59. 



Suivent (they follow), 119. 
Sujet (subject), 76. 
Superbe (proud), gi. 
Superlative, the French, 105. 
Suppression of vowel, 35. 
Sur (upon), 163. 
Survenir (to occur), 179. 
Sus (upon), 164. 
Syncope, 81, 82. 



T, the French, 60; the Latin, 73; 
addition of, 79; omission of, 80; 
apocope of, 82. 

Ta (thy), 112. 

Table (table), 47. 

Taire (to be silent), 143. 

Tandis (while), 153, 157. 

Tant (so much), 156, 159. 

Tante (aunt), 79. 

Taon (gad-fly), 60, 82. 

Tapis (carpet), 50. 

Tard (slowly), 158. 

Teigne (moth), 52. 

Teindre (to dye), 152. 

Tel (such), 117. 

Tellement (so much), 159. 

Tenses of French verbs, 1 19 ; forma- 
tion of, 136-141. 

Tentamen (attempt), 9. 

Tente (tent), 141. 

Terre (earth), 67. 

Tesson (bit of glass), 73. 

Tiede (warm), 61. 

Tient (he holds), 54. 

Tiers (third), 61. 

Tiers-parti (third party), 107. 

Tige (stem), 65. 

Timbre (bell), 57. 

Timon (pole of a coach), 50. 

Tiraille (I wrest), 192. 

Tisane (tisane), 75. 

Tisser (to weave), 130, 144. 

Tistre (to weave), 130, 144. 

Toile (web of cloth), 52. 

Toison (fleece), 60. 

Toit (roof), 50. 

Ton (thy), ill. 



220 



INDEX. 



Tonic accent, 32, 54; syllable in Latin, 

33. 
Tornare, 9. 

Tortiller (to twist), 192. 
Tot (soon), 156. 

Touchstones for testing words, 32. 
Toujours (always), 156. 
Tourner, 9. 

Tours (Council of, a.d. 813), 14. 
Tousser (to cough), 130. 
Tout (all), 117. 
Toux (cough), 62. 
Traduire (to translate), 180. 
Trahison (treason), 61. 
Traire (to milk), 147. 
Traiter (to treat), 50. 
Traiteur (eating-house keeper), 96. 
Traitre (traitor), 96. 
Tranchee (trench), 141. 
Tranquille (quiet), 63. 
Transformation of Latin into French, 

15- 

Transformation of Latin letters, 198. 

Transposition of letters, 77. 

Trefle (trefoil), 49. 

Treille (vine arbour), 57. 

Tresor (treasure), 51. 

Treuil (wheel and axle), 77. 

Trop (too much), 153, 160. 

Tuf (tufa), 59. 

Tugurium (a hut), 13. 

Tuscan, 23. 



U. 

U, the French, 51 ; the Latin, 68. 

Ue, origin of, 199. 

Ui, the French, 53. 

-uire, words ending in, 151. 

Un (one, a), 117. 

Unaccented or atonic vowels, 68, 69. 

Universal language, theory as to, 29. 

University of Paris, thronged, 17. 

Unus (one), 105. 

Uxellodunum, 2. 



V, the French, 59 ; the Latin, 76 
omitted, 82. 



Vaincre (to subdue), 70. 

Valoir (to be well), 151. 

Vannes, 2. 

Vassal (vassal), II. 

Varlet (varlet), 57. 

Vaugelas, 103. 

Vegetius, De re militari, 7. 

Veiller (to be awake), 57. 

Veine (vein), 52. 

Vendange (vintage), 65, 189. 

Vendre (to sell), 61, 140. 

Venaison (venison), 187. 

Veniel (venial), 54. 

Venir (to come), 131. 

Venise (Venice), 50, 61. 

Vente (sale), 141. 

Verb, the French, 1 1 8-1 5 2 ; auxiliary, 
123-129; first conjugation, 129; 
second conjugation, 130 ; third con- 
jugation, 132; fourth conjugation, 
133; voices, 118; moods, 119; 
tenses, 119; persons, 121 ; strong 
and weak, 122, 142; inchoative, 
131; irregular, 142; defective, 143; 
anomalous, 148; compound, 176; 
suffixes to, 191. 

Verberare (to whip), 3, 9. 

Verdun, 188. 

Vermoulu (worm-eater), 175. 

Verre (glass), 73. 

Verrue (wart), 188. 

Vers (towards), 164. . 

Vert (green), 47, 60. 

Verti, 9. 

Vervins, 60. 

Vessie (bladder), 188. 

Vetement (vestment), 69. 

Viande (meat), 60. 

Vidame (bishop's bailiff), 180. 

Vif (alive), 59. 

Vif-argent (quicksilver), 175. 

Viguier, viguier (provost of Provence 
or Languedoc), 64. 

Ville (town), 9. 

Villon's Old French, how detected, 93. 

Vinaigre (sour wine), 175. 

Vineux (vinous), 62. 

Vingt and its compounds, 106. 

Viorne (wild vine), 60, 127. 

Virgil, 2. 

Vis-a-vis (face to face), 166. 



IN D E X. 



21\ 



Vivre (to live), 150. 

Voeu (vow), 53. 

Voices of French verbs, 1 18. 

Voici (see here), 166. 

Voie (road), 52. 

Voilk (see there), 166. 

Voile (sail), 52. 

Voir (to see), 150. 

Voisin (neighbour), 61. 

Voiture (carriage), 50. 

Voix (voice), 62. 

Volage (fickle), 185. 

Volaille (poultry), 57. 

Voltaire, 29. 

Vous (you), 53. 

Vowels, suppression of short Latin, 
35'; simple French, 46-51 ; com- 
pound French, 51-55 ; Latin, ac- 
cented, 67 ; atonic, 68 ; transposed, 
77; added, 78 ; omitted, 80-82. 

Voyage (journey), 48. 



W. 



Wales, 5. 



War terms introduced by the Franks, 
11. 

Weak verbs, what, 122. 

Words, good and bad, introduced in 
the present century into the French 
language, 29, 30 ; two forms of, 
popular and learned, 32 ; influx of 
learned, 39 ; formed from phrases, 
176; with particles, 176. 



X. 



X, the French, 62 ; the Latin, 74. 



Y. 

Y, the pronoun how derived, m. 



Z, the French, 62 ; the Latin, 74. 
Zythum (beer), 5. 



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tion. With Introduction, Notes, and Glossarial Index. By R. Morris, LL.D. 
and W. W. Skeat, M.A. 
Part I. In the Press. 

Part II. From Robert of Gloucester to Gower (A.D. 1298 to A.D. 1393). Ext. 
fcap. 8vo. cloth, 7s. 6d. 



Clarendon Press Series. 



ii 



Specimens of English Literature, from the ' Ploughmans 

Crede' to the 'Shepheardes Calender' (A.D. 1394 toA.D. 1579). With Intro- 
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cloth, 7s. 6d. 

The Vision of "William concerning Piers the Plowman, 

by William Langland. Edited, with Notes, by W. W. Skeat, M.A., formerly 
Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 

Milton. The Areopagitica. With Notes. By J. W. Hales % 

M.A., late Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. 

The Philology of the English Tongue. By J. Earle, 

M. A., formerly Fellow of Oriel College, and Professor of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford. 
Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 7 s. 6d. 

Typical Selections from the best English Authors from the 

Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (to serve as a higher Reading Book,) with 
Introductory Notices and Notes, being a Contribution towards a History of 
English Literature. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, \s. 6d. 

Specimens of the Scottish Language; being a Series of 

Annotated Extracts illustrative of the Literature and Philology of the Lowland 
Tongue from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Century. With Introduction 
and Glossary. By A. H. Burgess, M.A. 

See also XII. below for other English Classics. 



VIII. FRENCH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 

Drachet's Historical Grammar of the French Language. 

Translated by G. W. Kitchin, M. A., formerly Censor of Christ Church. Second 
Edition, -with a new Index. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language, with 

a Preface on the Principles of French Etymology. By A. Brachet. Translated 
by G. W. Kitchin, M. A., formerly Censor of Christ Church. Crown 8vo. cloth, 
ior. 6d. Just Published. 

Corneille's Cinna, and Moliere's Les Femmes Savantes. 

Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Gustave Masson. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
cloth, 2S. 6d. 

Racine's Andromaque, and Corneille's Le Menteur. With 

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Moliere's Les Fourberies de Scapin, and Racine's Athalie. 

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2S. 6d. 



Selections from the Correspondence of Madame de Sevigne 

and her chief Contemporaries. Intended more especially for Girls' Schools. 
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12 



Clarendon Press Series. 



Voyage autour de ma Chambre, by Xavier de Maistre ; 

Ourika by MADAME DE DURAS; La Dot de Suzette by FlEVEE ; Les Ju- 
meaux de l'H&tel Corneille, by EDMOND ABOUT ; Mesaventures d'un Exoher, 
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IX. GERMAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 

Goethe's Egmont. With a Life of Goethe, &c. By Dr. 

Buchheim Professor of the German Language and Literature in King's Col- 
lege, London ; and Examiner in German to the University of London. Extra 
fcap. 8vo. cloth, y. 

Schiller's Wilhelm Tell. With a Life of Schiller ; an histo- 
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the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm. A Comedy. With a Life 

of Lessing, Critical Commentary, &c. By the same Editor. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
cloth, 3s. 6d. 

X. ART, &e. 
A Handbook of Pictorial Art. By R. St. J. Tyrwhitt, 

M. A., formerly Student and Tutor of Christ Church, Oxford. With coloured 
Illustrations, Photographs, and a chapter on Perspective by A. Macdonald. 
8vo. half morocco, i8j. 

A Treatise on Harmony. By Sir F. A. Gore Ouseley, 

Bart., M. A., Mus. Doc, Professor of Music in the University of Oxford. 4to. 
cloth, \os. 

A Treatise on Counterpoint, Canon, and Fugue, based 

upon that of Cherubini. By the same Author. 4to. cloth, idr. 

A Music Primer for Schools. By J. Troutbeck, M.A., 

andR. F. Dale, M.A., B. Mus. Crown 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d. Just Published. 



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Outlines of Textual Criticism applied to the New Testa- 
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Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, y. 6d. 

The Modern Greek Language in its relation to Ancient 

Greek. By E. M. Geldart, B.A., formerly Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. 
Extr. fcap. 8vo. cloth, 4s. 6d. 

The Cultivation of the Speaking Voice. By John Hullah. 

Crown 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

A System of Physical Education t Theoretical and Prac- 
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cloth, 7 j. 6d. 



Clarendon Press Series. 



13 



XII. A SEKIES OF ENGLISH CLASSICS. 

Designed to meet the wants of Students in English Lite- 
rature ; under the superintendence of the Rev. J. S. 
BREWER, M.A., of Queen's College, Oxford, and Professor 
of English Literature at King's College, London. 

There are two dangers to which the student of English Lite- 
rature is exposed at the outset of his task ; — his reading is apt to 
be too narrow or too diffuse. 

Out of the vast number of authors set before him in books 
professing to deal with this subject he knows not which to select : 
he thinks he must read a little of all ; he soon abandons so hope- 
less an attempt ; he ends by contenting himself with second-hand 
information ; and professing to study English Literature, he fails 
to master a single English author. On the other hand, by con- 
fining his attention to one or two writers, or to one special period 
of English Literature, the student narrows his view of it ; he fails 
to grasp the subject as a whole ; and in so doing misses one of 
the chief objects of his study. 

How may these errors be avoided ? How may minute reading 
be combined with comprehensiveness of view ? 

In the hope of furnishing an answer to these questions the 
Delegates of the Press, acting upon the advice and experience of 
Professor Brewer, have determined to issue a series of small 
volumes, which shall embrace, in a convenient form and at a 
low price, the general extent of English Literature, as repre- 
sented in its masterpieces at successive epochs. It is thought 
that the student, by confining himself, in the first instance, to 
those authors who are most worthy of his attention, will be 
saved from the dangers of hasty and indiscriminate reading. By 
adopting the course thus marked out for him, he will become 
familiar with the productions of the greatest minds in English 
Literature ; and should he never be able to pursue the subject 



14 Clarendon Press Series. 

beyond the limits here prescribed, he will have laid the founda- 
tion of accurate habits of thought and judgment, which cannot 
fail of being serviceable to him hereafter. 

The authors and works selected are such as will best serve to 
illustrate English Literature in its historical aspect. As • the eye 
of history,' without which history cannot be understood, the 
literature of a nation is the clearest and most intelligible record 
of its life. Its thoughts and its emotions, its graver and its less 
serious modes, its progress, or its degeneracy, are told by its best 
authors in their best words. This view of the subject will sug- 
gest the safest rules for the study of it. 

With one exception all writers before the Reformation are 
excluded from the Series. However great may be the value of 
literature before that epoch, it is not completely national. For 
it had no common organ of language; it addressed itself to 
special classes ; it dealt mainly with special subjects. Again ; of 
writers who flourished after the Reformation, who were popular 
in their day, and reflected the manners and sentiments of their 
age, the larger part by far must be excluded from our list. 
Common sense tells us that if young persons, who have bat a 
limited time at their disposal, read Marlowe or Greene, Burton, 
Hakewill or Du Bartas, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton will be 
comparatively neglected. 

Keeping, then, to the best authors in each epoch — and here 
popular estimation is a safe guide — the student will find the fol- 
lowing list of writers amply sufficient for his purpose : Chaucer, 
Spenser, Hooker, Shakespeare, Bacon, Milton, Dryden, Bunyan, 
Pope, Johnson, Burke, and Cowper. In other words, Chaucer is 
the exponent of the Middle Ages in England ; Spenser of the 
Reformation and the Tudors ; Hooker of the latter years of 
Elizabeth ; Shakespeare and Bacon of the transition from Tudor 
to Stuart ; Milton of Charles I and the Commonwealth ; Dryden 
and Bunyan of the Restoration ; Pope of Anne and the House 



Clarendon Press Series. 15 

of Hanover ; Johnson, Burke, and Cowper of the reign of 
George III to the close of the last century. 

The list could be easily enlarged ; the names of Jeremy 
Taylor, Clarendon, Hobbes, Locke, Swift, Addison, Goldsmith, 
and others are omitted. But in so wide a field, the difficulty is 
to keep the series from becoming unwieldy, without diminishing 
its comprehensiveness. Hereafter, should the plan prove to be 
useful, some of the masterpieces of the authors just mentioned 
may be added to the list. 

The task of selection is not yet finished. For purposes of 
education, it would neither be possible, nor, if possible, desirable, 
to place in the hands of students the whole of the works of the 
authors we have chosen. We must set before them only the 
masterpieces of literature, and their studies must be directed, not 
only to the greatest minds, but to their choicest productions. 
These are to be read again and again, separately and in combina- 
tion. Their purport, form, language, bearing on the times, must 
be minutely studied, till the student begins to recognise the full 
value of each work both in itself and in its relations to those that 
go before and those that follow it. 

It is especially hoped that this Series may prove useful to 
Ladies' Schools and Middle Class Schools ; in which English 
Literature must always be a leading subject of instruction. 

A General Introduction to the Series. By Professor 

Brewer, M.A. 

I. Chaucer. The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales ; The 

Knightes Tale ; The Nonne Prestes Tale. Edited by R. Morris Editor for 
the Early English Text Society, &c, &c. Third Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 
cloth, 2s. 6d. 

1. Spenser's Faery Queene. Books I and II. Designed 

chiefly for the use of Schools. With Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. By 
G. W. Kitchin, M.A., formerly Censor of Christ Church. 

Book I. Fifth Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. 6d. 

Book II. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, 2s. dd. 

3. Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I. Edited by R. W. 

Church, M.A., formerly Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. 

Cloth, 2S. 



1 6 Clarendon Press Series. 



4. Shakespeare. Select Plays. Edited by W. G. Clark, 

M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; and W. Aldis Wright, M.A., 
Trinity College, Cambridge. 

I. The Merchant of Venice. Extra fcap. 8vo. slipcovers, is. 
II. Richard the Second. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, is. 6d. 
III. Macbeth. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, is. 6d. 
IV. Hamlet. Extra fcap. Svo. stiff covers, 2s. 

5. Bacon. Advancement of Learning. Edited by W. Aldis 

Wright, M.A. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth, \s. 6d. 

6. Milton. Poems. Edited by R. C. Browne, M.A., and 

Associate of King's College, London. 2 vols. Second Edition. Ext. fcap. 8vo. 
cloth, 6s. 6d. 

Sold separately. Vol. I. \s.. Vol. II. 3s. 

7. Dryden. Stanzas on the Death of Oliver Cromwell; 

Astraea Redux; Annus Mirabilis; Absalom and Achitophel ; Religio Laici ; 
The Hind and the Panther. Edited by W. D. Christie, M.A., Trinity College, 
Cambridge. Extra fcap. Svo. cloth, 3s. 6d. 

8. Bunyan. Grace Abounding; The Pilgrim's Progress. 

Edited by E. Venables, M. A. , Canon of Lincoln. 

9. Pope. With Introduction and Notes. By Mark Pattison, 

B.D., Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford. 
I. Essay on Man. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, is. 6d. 
II. Satires and Epistles. Extra fcap. 8vo. stiff covers, 2s. 

10. Johnson. Rasselas; Lives of Pope and Dryden. Edited 

by C. H. Q. Daniel, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College, Oxford. 

11. Burke. Thoughts on the Present Discontents; the Two 

Speeches on America ; Reflections on the French Revolution. By E. J. Payne, 
B A., Fellow of University College, Oxford, hi the Press. 

12. Cowper. The Task, and some of his minor Poems. 

Edited by H. T. Griffith, M.A., Pembroke College, Oxford. In the Press. 



Published for the University by 
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON. 

The Delegates of the Press invite suggestions and advice 
from all persons interested in education; and will be thankful 
for hints, &c, addressed to either the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, 
St. Giles's Road East, Oxford, or the Secretary to the 
Delegates, Clare?idon Press, Oxford. 



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